Sins of the Father
by TheTBone
Summary: A few weeks after her father's death, Stef thought she had finally made peace with his passing. But when an unexpected chapter of Frank's life is uncovered, the family is shaken to the core. Stef is forced to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about her father when these secrets come to the surface - secrets that could bring a family closer than ever, or tear them apart.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own The Fosters. (Obviously.)**

"Jesus, honestly, it's like you're doing this just to spite me now." Lena groaned at the sight of her son squeezing a generous helping of ketchup onto his fish. "No one puts ketchup on halibut unless they're intentionally trying to give their mother an aneurism."

Jesus reluctantly put the bottle of his precious condiment down. "Ma, how many times do I have to tell you? It's nothing personal. It's just a proven fact that absolutely everything tastes better with ketchup."

Mariana wrinkled her nose, disgusted by her brother's habit of lathering anything and everything in the red sauce. "It's not just with your cooking, believe me. He asked the waiter for it at that really fancy steakhouse we went to before the winter formal," she rolled her eyes.

"The steak needed a little kick. It was very dry. That place was overrated," Jesus commented.

"It was totally embarrassing," Mariana continued, ignoring his irrelevant commentary. "Not to mention the fact that you aimed it, like, right at me and almost spilled it all over my fancy dress," she said, glaring at him, recalling the memory.

"Hey, it was either point it in your direction or Lexi's, and did you really think I was going to risk ruining my date's dress and ending our relationship?" Jesus said with a cheeky smile.

"The way you're talking makes it sound like you want to risk me ending your life," Mariana snapped back.

"Okay, enough," Lena raised her hands in surrender. "I didn't foresee my innocent comment leading to death threats."

"Well we can't predict everything," Stef cast a side-comment at Lena before going to pick up the hot sauce in the middle of the table.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Lena asked, glaring at her wife.

"What?" she asked innocently, unscrewing the bottle. "It compliments the fish. And I wouldn't insult my condiment usage unless you want a full-blown war. You saw what just happened when ketchup was slighted."

"All right, let's change the subject then," Lena said. "Anything new happening? Anyone?"

"Uh, not really," Brandon replied.

Callie shook her head, "can't think of much."

"Well you all are just riveting, aren't you?" Stef asked.

"Um, I got an 85 on my math test," Jude spoke up. "I know it's not an A or anything but I got a sticker so it must be pretty good. For me, at least," he said, trying to suppress his excitement.

"That's pretty good for _anyone_, babe. I'm proud of you," Stef said, standing to kiss his forehead before bringing her plate to the sink.

"Yeah, good job buddy," Brandon smiled at him while Callie gave him an encouraging knee-knock.

"More than pretty good, even. That's great. Way better than I ever did," Jesus added.

"You can say that again," Mariana snickered, albeit playfully.

"Hey, knock it off, Ms. Thing, unless you want that little shiny piece of metal you're so fond of to be confiscated and become my shiny piece of metal. And yes, that's just a fancy code for 'phone confiscation.'" Stef said, nudging her daughter's arm on the way to the refrigerator.

"Well, with this newfound news I feel like dessert is even more appropriate. Anyone up for a slice of celebratory pie? I slaved over the stove all day in order to treat you all with this," Stef said, removing a pie pan from the fridge.

"That's from the grocery store. And _you_ didn't even buy it," Lena informed her.

"And you don't make pies on the stove. You put them in the oven," Callie said.

"Oh hush, both of you. If I get any more sass, neither of you are getting any," Stef said, pulling the drawer open to retrieve a pie cutter. She held up the blade. "Seriously, don't mess with me. I've killed for less."

Stef's threat was interrupted by the ding of the doorbell.

"I got it," Lena said, setting her napkin down on her plate. "You guys start on the dishes, please," she said, getting up, crossing to the other side of the house to answer the door.

"I thought you said Kelsey wasn't coming over until later," Stef asked.

"I didn't think she was. She said she wasn't coming over until like eight. Said she was going to have dinner with her family before coming and working on costumes," Mariana said, rinsing off her silverware and rolling her eyes. She still wasn't the biggest fan of Kelsey, but she'd have to play nice for a little while longer. Tolerating Kelsey was a small price she was more than willing to pay in order to continue working on the play and spend time with Chase.

"Maybe she wanted to come early and spend a little extra time with yours truly. No one can resist this for long," Jesus added.

"Could you not?" Mariana responded with a fake smile.

Stef let out a heavy sigh. "Could you two please go five seconds without bickering? If this house gets any more chaotic, I'm going to have to give Dr. Phil a ring."

"Hello," Lena said pleasantly, opening the door to reveal the warm California evening air and girl with dirty-blonde hair.

"Hi," an unfamiliar face replied back. She looked to be in her late teens, average height with a tiny nose stud featured on her face.

"Can I help you with something?" Lena asked with a smile. It wasn't uncommon to get kids at their doorstep selling things or asking them to sign petitions. Mission Bay was a relatively small town and a tight community, so going door-to-door was definitely not unheard of.

"Kind of? I mean, maybe. If this is the right house," she said stepping back to seemingly compare the address number on the side of the house to the one on the small slip of crumpled paper she had in her hand.

"Are you one of Mariana's friends?" Lena asked, taking her best guess considering her nose ring and Mariana's recent obsession with body art, much to Stef's and her dismay.

"Oh, uh, no," she shook her head, but offered no further information.

"Jesus? Brandon? Callie? Jude?" she rambled off names of her children, although Jude seemed unlikely, she figured she'd toss it out there. She crinkled her eyebrows, waiting for a response. This girl had an almost embarrassed look about her, and her silence was getting a little odd.

She took a deep breath. "Ah, what the hell, I might as well just say it," she mumbled to herself before looking up at Lena. "Okay, so this may be a complete long shot, but, uh, does a Stefanie Elkin live here?"

Lena was slightly taken aback not only the use of her wife's maiden name, but she couldn't imagine why this girl would be looking for her.

"Actually yes," she said, her tone giving way to her confusion. She saw the girl's grey eyes widen faintly. "Would you like me to get her for you?"

The girl nodded slowly, her heart beating faster now that her information was confirmed. "Yeah, that'd be good," she nodded a bit hesitantly.

"Okay, not a problem. Just one second," she held up a finger before giving her a tiny smile and shutting the door to retrieve Stef.

"Stef, there's someone at the door for you," Lena said, walking into the kitchen. By now most of the dinner plates were in the dishwasher and the pie tin was being opened by an eager Jesus.

"Can't they see I'm about to eat pie?" she asked.

"Stef, the pie can wait," Lena replied.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't you dare eat all that while I'm gone," she said, pointing a serious finger to everyone in the room. "I know where you all sleep."

"Who's at the door?" Stef asked as she made her way to the other room.

"I don't know," Lena said, still distracted by the odd encounter. She'd find out soon enough, she supposed.

"What do you mean you don't know? You opened the door, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I didn't recognize her. She looks young, too."

"Must be the stripper I hired," Stef said deadpan.

"No, as in our kids' age young," Lena said. "Let's hope she's not a stripper."

Stef glanced out the window and wrinkled an eyebrow. "That's odd. I don't recognize her either."

Lena hesitated. "Do you want me to stay here while you talk to her?"

"No, no, it's probably nothing. Go save me a piece of pie, will you?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "You're worse than Jesus."

"Love you too," Stef smiled as her wife made her way back to the kitchen.

"Hi," Stef said as she opened the door. "Can I help you?"

"Hi. Are you Stefanie Elkin?"

"Yes, that's me," Stef crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. "Although I go by Foster now."

"So your name is Foster Elkin?" she asked, confused.

"No my name is Stefanie Foster. Elkin is my maiden name," she replied, her forehead creased.

"Oh, right. Gotcha. Wow. Sorry…" the girl laughed nervously.

"And who might you be?" Stef asked, raising her eyebrow. She was studying this girl carefully, trying to figure out her business here. She sized her up. Lena was right, she did look young. Too young to have a hole through her nose and a small wrist tattoo she could see peeking out from under her sweatshirt sleeve. What was her agenda?

"I'm, uh, I'm Alexandra," she replied shakily, the smile slipping from her face, the nervous laughter gone.

"Look a little old to be a girl scout, Alexandra. Although if you had a box of thin mints handy I can't say I'd hesitate to buy them off of you," she said.

Alexandra laughed, the joke making her slightly less nervous. Stefanie didn't seem to completely hate her. At least not yet.

"Sorry, no thin mints. And believe me, if I had a box they'd be long gone and currently digesting by now."

Stef gave her a small smile, but was too suspicious for it to reach her eyes. "So, Alexandra, why exactly are you here looking for me?"

Alexandra looked down at her hands, clearly uncomfortable. "I, uh, I was wondering if you by chance…" she cleared her throat. "If you by chance are related to or may know a Franklin Elkin?" she asked.

Stef's face darkened and she felt a pang in her chest. It was still a fresh wound for her. Frank had only passed away about a month ago, and the mention of his name was threatening to make her tear up. She put a hand to her chest and cleared her throat, keeping her eyes downcast in order to get control of her emotions. She couldn't cry. Not here, not now.

"Yes," she said quietly, nearly in a whisper. "I did. He was my father," she said, finally looking up to meet Alexandra's eyes.

"Was?" Alexandra asked in a whisper, looking down at the ground in disappointment.

"He passed away about a month ago," Stef nodded, trying to force smile and regain control of herself. She didn't have time to get emotional. She still needed to figure out what this girl's deal was.

"Wow," the girl whispered, blinking back tears herself.

"Why do you ask?" Stef asked dryly. She needed answers, and wished this girl would cut to the chase.

"You said that you were his daughter?" she clarified, still staring at her feet.

"Yes, that's correct," Stef said factually, standing up straighter, crossing her arms more tightly around herself.

Alexandra looked up, her eyes meeting Stef's.

"So am I."

**Oh snap. Who saw that coming? Hope you all liked the first chapter of this. Thanks for reading, and please drop a review to tell me what you thought. Feedback would be much, much appreciated!**

**Big shoutouts to justliziam, obsessedatopia, and mea23 for reading over this and helping me out. They're pretty awesome. **


	2. Chapter 2

"Everyone clear out of the kitchen, please," Stef said, walking briskly and purposefully toward the dining room which was livelier than ever. But the bustling energy of the kitchen came to a sudden halt when they saw the serious look on Stef's face, her jaw clenched and her eyes hard with an unreadable emotion.

"Is everything okay?" Brandon asked, standing up from the table and walking over towards his frazzled mother.

"Fine, everything's fine, I just need everyone out of the kitchen," Stef said, brushing him off, making a shooing gesture with her hands. However, her distracted, fast speech wasn't convincing anyone in the room.

"It doesn't sound like everything's fine," Mariana spoke, her voice growing panicked, which led to Jude cowering back slightly into Callie's arms.

"Well it is, it's fine, we're fine, I just need the kitchen," Stef said, disregarding the concerned interjections from her children. She couldn't be the reassuring one right now, and she wasn't getting much of anywhere on the authoritarian side of things either. Her mind was spinning a million miles a minute and nothing was making much sense. She shot a pleading look at Lena, who shot her back a concerned look as they made eye contact.

"All right, you guys, let's head upstairs for a little bit. Finish up any homework, maybe take a shower tonight so we can all have hot water," Lena said, ushering their confused-looking brood up the stairs.

Once the kids were out of earshot, Lena turned to face her wife. "Stef, what is going on?"

"I, we, need to talk," she stumbled, harshly raking a hand through her hair.

"Okay, so talk to me. What happened?" Lena asked, placing a hand on Stef's arm.

Stef took a deep breath, "hold on," she said, before leaving Lena's grasp and opening the door to the living room, where the girl from the porch was perched awkwardly on the couch, touching as little of it as possible. "Alexandra," Stef said, startling the girl from her daze. She immediately stood up. "Could you come in here, please?" Stef requested, her voice still agitated and shaken.

The girl nodded and wordlessly followed the duo into the kitchen. Lena looked wide-eyed between the two of them, though she couldn't catch eye-contact with either one. Typical Stef defense mechanism: avoidance.

"We should probably sit down for this," Stef suggested quietly to Lena. They both pulled out chairs adjacent to each other and sat.

"Take a seat," Stef said, gesturing to a chair across the table, which the girl hesitantly sunk into.

Stef cleared her throat and folded her hands before starting. "Lena this is Alexandra."

"It's nice to meet you, Lena," Alexandra said, reaching a hand out awkwardly across the table.

"Please, call her Dr. Adams Foster," Stef interjected, her eyes narrowing at the girl. Both Lena and Alexandra looked over at Stef, Alexandra's eyes wide with fear and Lena's slit with an admonishing glare. Noticing the look, Stef raised her hands in defense, "kidding. I was just joking. You can call her Lena," she said, though not too convincingly.

Alexandra forced out a nervous laugh. "Right. Well, again, nice to meet you," she greeted once more, figuring it'd be safer to avoid titles altogether this time around.

"And to what do we owe this pleasure?" Lena asked, laying her palms on the table.

Stef and Alexandra made an awkward flicker of eye-contact before quickly dodging each other's gazes. Finally, it was Stef who spoke up.

"Alexandra is, uh, Frank's daughter," she said as casually and conversationally as she could manage.

"Frank…?" Lena asked slowly, racking her brain.

"Frank Elkin," Alexandra spoke up, looking down at the table, her hand folded in her lap, her thumbs twiddling.

"As in _your_ father, Frank Elkin?" Lena asked, shooting a desperate and questioning look at Stef.

"It appears so," Stef said, barely above a whisper, though her eyes were anything but gentle. They were still focused fixedly on the girl across the table. Her…half-sister, Lena supposed.

"Wow," Lena said, taking a deep breath. "That's…a lot to process."

"You think?" Stef mumbled to her herself, crossing her arms and pursing her lips.

"Okay…" Lena started slowly, glancing over at Stef once again. She was useless at the moment, her eyes darting around the room, her body-language defensive, but still intimidating. Lena supposed it was up to her to try and ease some of the heavy tension that was currently suffocating the room. She decided personal questions would be the way she'd try and dissolve it. Not only would they learn more about this mysterious girl, but maybe Stef would warm up to her once they got her talking.

"So, um, Alexandra. How exactly did you find us? If you don't mind me asking," Lena inquired, shooting a reassuring smile across the table and forming a temple with her hands, a nonthreatening, open stance. Sometimes her PhD in child psychology really did come in handy on a whim.

Alexandra took a relieved breath. Although she wasn't exactly excited recalling her journey here, it at least took her mind off of the present. And at least she wouldn't be sitting in silence, feeling the tense and icy vibe radiating from Stef across the table.

"My mom really didn't tell me much about who my father was. She never brought him up willingly, and whenever I asked questions she was really vague. All she really told me was what happened with him was a mistake and that his name was Frank. I tried to find him, I mean of course I did, doesn't every kid? But there's not much you can do with that limited information. Do you have any idea how many Google results pop up when you type in 'Frank'? I just accepted that he wasn't going to be a part of my life I guess. It was just me and my mom and that's how it was always going to be," Alexandra said, looking up from the table for the first time since she began her small speech.

Lena gave her a sad but genuine smile, her eyes encouraging her to continue. Though Stef's eyes were still squinted in suspicion, she could see them urging her to continue out of curiosity.

"So Google was out so I had to find another way. I researched paternity tests, you know just to see what I was getting into and figured out you'd have to have DNA samples from both my father and me to know for sure. I guess the mail-order take home test is more useful when trying to be certain you're related, not really to find someone you're related to. As you can imagine, this wasn't very helpful in my situation since I didn't really even have a starting point."

Alexandra shifted in her chair. All of this felt like very personal information to be sharing with complete strangers. One stranger was her half-sister, but they were both still very much strangers nonetheless.

"I knew the cheap, mail-in paternity test wasn't going to work so I rerouted. I read somewhere that once you're arrested, sometimes your DNA is taken to compare to evidence and stuff. I mean I hoped my father wasn't like a hardened criminal or anything but, hey, what did I have to lose? So I figured it couldn't hurt to find out if there was some way I could do a paternity test that way. You know, run mine against the system's and see if any of the genes matched or something. Obviously I had no clue how to do that, but my friend Andy is smart. Like, really smart. Like, smart enough to place in national science fairs smart. So he somehow figured out a way to do that; don't ask me how, God knows I have no idea. I barely passed sophomore chemistry. So anyway, Andy figured out a way to run the DNA and see about matching genes. And since luckily Andy's dad's a detective, we could get access to the device used to run the DNA against all the people in the database," Alexandra explained.

"Hold on," Stef said, holding a hand up to stop her, contributing to the conversation for the first time. "So let me get this straight. Your friend's dad gave you permission to mess with a confidential government database?" she asked in disbelief. She would've make a crack like 'sounds like something Mike would do' had she not been so shocked.

"Well," Alexandra cleared her throat. "I mean _technically_ I guess we didn't really get permission. We kind of, sort of, maybe snuck in the station late at night while using his dad's access code and ID," she bit her lip. "But I'm sure he probably would've let us had we asked. We're responsible people, and it was for a good cause. An urgent matter, too…" Alexandra said, trying to reason. Maybe she should've left that part out. Although she knew they didn't do anything wrong, and the circumstances did call for drastic measures, that probably didn't make a great first impression. Sometimes her mouth worked faster than her brain.

"You realize that's highly illegal, right?" Stef said, crossing her arms.

"What are you, a cop?" Alexandra itched her head and forced a laugh, trying to make light of the situation and ease the mood.

Stef raised an eyebrow in response, which Alexandra interpreted immediately.

"You're a cop, aren't you?"

Stef simply nodded once, her eyes still fixedly and decidedly unwelcoming.

"Of course you are…" Alexandra mumbled.

"Okay, let's move on, shall we? We can discuss the illicit means by which you received your sources of information later," Lena spoke up, her voice now containing evidence of a slightly chastising tone, interrupting the awkward conversation that had just unfolded.

"All right, well, uh, we ran the DNA and Frank popped up. Apparently he was in the system from a case like twenty years ago, for robbery case back in '94 or something."

"'93," Stef interrupted.

"Right. Sorry. In '93. And so I-"

"He was arrested in '93 as a suspect of being an accomplice to robbery. There was a pretty serious robbery at the convenience store he was at where a guy threatened to hold up the place. Because since there were very few witnesses, the guy tried to tell the authorities fabricated information regarding my father to buy some time off of his sentence. But of course the charges never stuck because they were bogus and he was innocent," Stef informed her.

"I didn't know that part," Alexandra replied.

"You don't get the whole story from that database. Especially when you're accessing it illegally," she said, a small edge in her voice.

"Stef, let her finish," Lena said softly, placing a hard on her wife's arm to attempt to calm her.

"Why now? Why'd you wait until now to start looking for him?" Lena asked.

"I just turned eighteen, and I figured the sooner I could try and hunt for him the better. I figured it was now or never, you know? But I guess I'll have to settle for never," she said quietly, looking down at her hands, swallowing back the burning feeling in her throat and eyes. She couldn't cry. Not here, not now, not in front of these people.

Lena, having encountered her fair share of teens on the verge of tears from the many that were sent to her office on a daily basis, took this as her cue to change the subject and end the conversation. "Where are you staying, hon?" she asked, tacking on the term of endearment for good measure. She obviously needed it. Eighteen? She didn't care what the law said; in her eyes, she was still very much a child.

"Some motel," Alexandra said, welcoming the shift in topic. "It's not very far from here. It's pretty nice too. In fact, I was thinking that I should go ahead and head back there soon."

"You're planning on staying there tonight?" Lena questioned.

"Yeah. I mean, I'll need to book it for tonight but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem. It didn't look especially crowded and this town doesn't exactly look like a tourist hotspot, especially this time of the year. The rates are reasonable, so I just need to go check in and renew the room."

"Oh no. No, no. You're not staying in that motel," Lena shook her head.

"I'm not?" Alexandra asked, confused.

"She's not?" Stef whispered just loudly enough for her wife to hear. Lena kicked her gently under the table.

"Of course not. You'll stay here."

"Oh, no really it's fine. I wouldn't want to intrude on you guys. I don't want to be any trouble," Alexandra stuttered. She couldn't help but feel as if she'd be a burden. That's all she ever was to anyone else. They were just being nice. Well, Lena was at least. Stef hadn't spoken a word and she didn't look like she was particularly in favor of this idea either.

"Nonsense," Lena vehemently shook her head. "You'll stay here. We have plenty of room. The couch pulls out, and we have extra drawers where you can store your things. You're staying here, and I don't want to hear another word about it," she said with finality.

"You're sure it's not a problem?" she asked, eyebrows wrinkled in disbelief.

"Of course not, no problem at all. Right, Stef?" she said, sending a prompting and pointed look at her blonde counterpart.

Stef took a deep breath. "Of course not," she said reluctantly, though plastering on a smile in attempt to hide this, keeping up the charade for the sake of her wife, herself, and the girl standing nervously across from her.

"See, it'll be great. And now you won't have to waste money on a room," Lena said, clapping her hands together.

"Well thank you," Alexandra said sincerely. "I'll just need to go back to the motel and grab my things. It shouldn't take too long, the walk isn't far."

"Oh you don't have to walk. Stef will drive you to get your things. Right, Stef?"

Stef rubbed her forehead. "Of course. Just let me grab my keys, you go on out to the car," she instructed. Alexandra nodded and slowly made her way outside, leaving Stef and Lena alone in the kitchen.

"Lena-" Stef started.

"Stop. Don't start," Lena said, holding a hand out. "You need to put whatever you are feeling aside right now and start being the adult here. I know this has got to be hard. It was sudden and this is big and it is probably bringing up a whole lot of emotions up right now, but you need to suppress that for the time being. Because there is a girl outside right now who is scared to death. She has that same look in her eyes that Callie had the first time I met her, and she may look like she's fine, but she is scared out of her mind. Think about it from her perspective. She doesn't know us, she's in a strange town, she's just found out she'd lost the father she'd sought after her whole life and never got a chance to meet him, and she's a kid. She is a kid that needs you to be there for her right now. You don't have to like it. You don't even have to like her. But you at least need to stop acting like this and step up. So suck it up for a few minutes, drive her to get her things, and for God's sake, Stefanie, don't interrogate the poor thing any more. We'll figure the rest out later."

Stef gave her wife a hard look. Rarely did Lena ever go on rants like this, and even more rarely were they aimed at her. She considered what she was saying, and, like usual, knew deep down that she was right. She'd suck it up. She'd be cordial. But she wouldn't like it. And there was no way she was letting her guard down, because first and foremost her responsibility was to her family – her wife and children. And she'd be damned if anyone ever tried to mess with that, no matter who they were or claimed to be.

Stef sighed. "I'm not even allowed to interrogate her a little?" she asked, allowing herself a small smile.

"There is to be a strict no-interrogation policy," Lena said, grinning back, thankful that Stef seemed to be lightening up, at least a little.

"Are you sure? A little interrogating might be good for her. Toughen her up for that life. You heard her. She broke into a police database. She's a criminal, Lena."

"And she's family," Lena said, finality in her voice, before she turned and walked up the stairs.

**Thank you guys so much for all the support you've already shown this story! I'm overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I've gotten, so please keep it coming. It's very helpful and awesome to hear from you. I hope you enjoyed this installment. **

**Special thanks to justliziam, obsessedatopia, and mea23 for their help.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Will everybody come downstairs, please?" Lena asked, making her way through the hallway, knocking on the three rooms containing her five children.

Jesus opened his door with a huff, rolling his head back at once again being interrupted and being instructed to migrate to a different part of the house. "Oh c'mon, Mama, you just told us to come up here like ten minutes ago. Jude and I just started a new game of _Murder in Manhattan_," he complained.

"Well I need you all to come downstairs. I have something I need to discuss with you all. And we may need to talk about the kinds of videogames you're playing too while we're at it, young man," Lena said, gently shoving Jesus' shoulder towards the stairs as he rolled his eyes in response.

"Let's go, you guys," Lena said again, after a few moments had passed and no one had exited their rooms.

"What's going on?" Mariana said, finally opening the door, one half of her hair straightened and the other half her naturally wavy texture, Callie popping her head around the door behind her.

Lena sighed. "You all would've known by now had you come downstairs the first time I asked you to," she said before making her way back down the stairs.

"Is Lena mad at us?" Jude asked, casting a nervous look at Brandon, seeing as they were the only two left upstairs.

"Nah buddy, she's probably just stressed out about something," Brandon reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you think she's gonna yell at us?" Jude pried, hesitantly allowing Brandon to lead him to the lower level.

"I doubt it, Lena hardly ever yells. Don't worry, Jude, it'll be okay," Brandon promised, taking a seat next to him on the living room couch where the other three were already waiting.

"Nice hair, Mariana," Jesus said, noting his twin's unbalanced, disproportionate locks.

"Oh shut up, Jesus," she snapped back, rolling her eyes.

"If you go to school like that, I'm telling everyone we're not related."

"Aw, wouldn't that be a shame," she retorted sarcastically.

"Enough!" Lena said, throwing her hands in the air.

"You said she wasn't gonna yell," Jude whispered to Brandon, who responded by putting his head in his hands. Now was one of the very few times that he missed being an only child.

"Okay," Lena said, taking a deep breath, lowering her hands. "We have some things that we need to discuss, so if everybody could stop fighting for five minutes that would be greatly appreciated," she said, eyeing everyone in the room. "That doable for everyone?" she asked, her eyes landing on Jesus and Mariana a little longer than the others.

Everyone mumbled yeses, the twins' carrying a guiltier tone.

"Good. All right. Now there's not really an easy way to say this, but as you all know we had a…visitor earlier. Someone came to the door and asked to see your mom."

"Was it somebody bad? Where is she?" Jude asked, his tone filled with fear. The poor thing sounded so worried that Lena didn't even have the heart to gently chastise him for interrupting.

"No honey, it was nobody bad. Stef's fine, she just had to go out for awhile."

"Out where?" Brandon asked.

"I'm getting there," Lena said. She guessed she couldn't blame them for being concerned. After all, last time their mom had left in a hurry she ended up in the hospital. Still, she'd wish they'd just respect her wishes and stop talking so she could get to the point.

"Anyway, this girl came by earlier this evening and asked for your mom. Her name is Alex, and she, uh, she was Grandpa Frank's daughter," Lena said, clearing her throat and crossing her arms, gauging the reactions at the couch-full of children in front of her. The room was silent for a few beats, never a good sign knowing her kids. It was obviously taking a bit of time to process.

"Wait, so mom has a sister?" Mariana spoke up first, trying to wrap her head around it.

"I thought she was an only child…" Jesus said.

"We all did," Lena said, letting out a humorless laugh.

"Did Stef know?" Callie asked.

Lena shook her head with a small smile.

"We have an aunt then," Brandon said, looking at Lena for confirmation.

Lena pursed her lips together. She hadn't even thought about that. As well as being related to Stef, she was also related to the kids. She was only two years older than some of them.

"Technically, yes, you have an aunt," Lena said, nodding slowly.

"'Technically?' What do you mean 'technically?'" Brandon asked, irritation creeping into his voice. Brandon was never one for surprises, and he wasn't fond of being kept in the dark. He was a lot like Stef in that way. He was stubborn, and liked to be kept in the loop. He didn't do well with bombshells being dropped on him, and often took out that frustration on the people around him.

"She's on the younger side," Lena said in a measured tone.

"Like how young?" Mariana questioned.

"She's only about eighteen."

"What?" a chorus of voices rang out from the couch.

"Is that why grandma and grandpa are-" Jesus lowered his voice, catching his mistake. "Were…divorced?" he asked.

Lena sighed. In addition to this new information, Frank's death was still a fresh wound for everyone. Sometimes they forgot he was really gone and the present tense just slipped. "I don't know Jesus," she said softly. "But it's really none of our business."

"How is it none of our business? Don't we have a right to know these things?" Brandon said, jumping off from the couch, his face flushing red.

"Brandon, sit down," Lena said, trying to calm her son. Brandon was usually pretty calm and laid-back, but when got riled up about things, when something particularly bothered him, he could have quite the temper.

"How could someone do this? Just come here like this without telling us?" he asked, starting to pace around the living room, ignoring Lena's order. "How could grandpa not tell anyone? How could he even do that to grandma in the first place?" he questioned, his volume rising.

"Brandon, don't raise your voice. You need to settle down," Lena said sharply, shooting him a serious look. God, he was so much like Stef that it was annoying.

"Do we even know this girl is for real? How do you know she's not just playing us?" Brandon continued ranting.

"Brandon!" Lena snapped, placing hands on his shoulders. She couldn't be angry at him – not really anyway. This had to be hard for him, but it didn't give him the right to be disrespectful. As sympathetic as she was, she needed to regain control. "We aren't finished talking about this, all right? Please, take a seat," she commanded, shoving him back over to the couch, sandwiched between Jesus and Jude.

"Brandon has a point, how _do_ we know this girl is really related to mom?" Mariana asked.

"We just know, Mariana," Lena said, giving her daughter an assuring smile. "And as hard as it is to process all this, we're going to have to start learning to accept it, okay? It's okay that you're confused; I know it's a lot to handle, and I know you're going to have questions, and that's okay. But she's family. And I do expect you to at least be polite, understood?" Lena asked, individual locking eyes with the kids, a serious expression on her face.

"Well when are we going to meet her?" Mariana asked, still sporting a rather skeptical expression.

"Soon. Tonight, actually."

"She's coming tonight?" Jesus asked. "How long is going to be here?"

"She's spending the night. Mom's driving her to go pick up her stuff and then she's coming back here. Anybody have a problem with this?" Lena crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, daring anyone to argue with her.

Those on the couch shook their heads, knowing that now would not be a good time to argue with Lena. Not when she had on the signature 'look.' "Good. Now if no one has anything further to say-"

"The real question is, does mom have a problem with this," Brandon said, staring at Lena almost challengingly.

Lena matched his look, hoping he didn't see right through her façade. Even though she knew he was just trying to look out for his mom, she wasn't loving the attitude she was receiving from him. Even though she has always stressed the importance of honesty, she knew exposing the truth would do much more harm than good.

"Your mother is fine with this," she said. And she would be eventually…she hoped.

She thought about the two of them in the car together and wondered how that was going. It couldn't be that bad, right? It was only a few minutes. Lena bit her lip. "It's all going to be fine," she repeated, trying to assure her kids, and trying to assure herself.

**Hooray for chapter three. You people are the greatest on giving feedback. Your reviews are awesome and fabulous, so please keep them coming. I love hearing from you! **

**Thanks justliziam, Mea23, and obsessedatopia for helping proofread, throw ideas around, etc.**


	4. Chapter 4

"So," Stef awkwardly cleared her throat, keeping her eyes glued to the road in front of her, "do you want to listen to the radio or something?"

"Sure, yeah. I mean music's always good," Alexandra said, staring out the passenger-seat window.

"Okay," Stef said. "Any station preferences? Or, I mean I guess you probably don't know the stations down here, but any music genre preferences?"

"Oh, uh, really anything's good with me," Alexandra replied.

"All right then," Stef made a move to power the radio on, figuring she'd just flip it to the Hot 100 or whatever crap Mariana always insisted it be on. All teens liked that, right? You couldn't go wrong with the Hot 100. She cranked the knob over to the station. Nothing. That was odd. Sighing, she turned the knob a little more. Still no sound. Irritated, she began to move the volume controls up and down, yet nothing was working.

"Okay so how about no music."

"No music is perfectly fine," Alexandra agreed, nodding.

Stef raked a hand through her hair. Of course, today of all days would be the time where the damn radio breaks. Now there was no escaping the awkward silence that took over. She was either going to have to ride out the suffocating quiet or start talking. If she knew that it wasn't completely impossible, she would've thought Lena masterminded this whole thing just to force them to confront each other.

"So…I guess this gives us some time to talk, yes?" Stef began in a desperate attempt to prompt some conversation.

"Yup. Suppose you're right," Alexandra replied, her eyes still fixed pointedly out the window, her head permanently turned to the right and in the opposite direction of Stef.

"So where have you been living? Before you came here, obviously," Stef asked, trying to keep her tone calm and conversational, not resembling anything that could even be considered remotely interrogational.

"New Jersey," she replied simply. She had learned her lesson about over-sharing. She would keep it as vague as possible from now on.

"Oh that's cool."

"Yeah."

Stef tapped on the steering wheel. "And you go to school I take it?"

"Went."

"Right. I mean, of course, or else you obviously wouldn't be here in the middle of spring," Stef nodded. "So you graduated already, then?"

"Mhm."

"Good. That's good. Any college plans, or…?"

Alexandra shrugged, "maybe eventually. I'm actually working right now though. Or, was working. I took some time off to come here."

"That's nice. Where did you work?"

"Waitress at a small diner up there. It's family-owned, you wouldn't know it."

"Probably not. No, but that's great. You know, taking responsibility, finding a job and all that."

"I guess."

Stef pursed her lips. This girl was not going to make this easy on her. This was probably payback for earlier. It was no wonder she didn't want to talk. She just wished she'd give her something, anything really to stop this painfully trite conversation. Any topic, really. Sports teams, the weather, politics-

"What was our father like?"

-anything, of course, but that.

The car came to a screeching halt as Stef slammed on the breaks, jerking them both forward, the seatbelts digging into their necks. "Sorry, I almost missed the turn," Stef said quietly, pulling the car into the motel parking lot.

"No, I'm sorry," Alexandra apologized. "That was a…that wasn't a good question. Or good timing. At all."

Stef found a parking spot and turned off the vehicle.

"I-you don't have to answer that if you don't want to, I just-" Alexandra unbuckled her seatbelt and made a move to open the car door. She was ready to bolt. She wanted nothing more that to sprint into the hotel room and never come out. This was a mistake, a big mistake. It all was. "I'll just go get my things, I-"

Stef stuck an arm out, grabbing at her shirt and pulling her back inside the car. Alexandra looked at her, puzzled, but shut the door and leaned back into her seat.

Stef took a deep breath, leaning her head against the headrest of her seat and closing her eyes. "Dad was stubborn," she started. "He was very…opinionated and he wasn't afraid of anyone knowing it. I guess that wasn't a good or bad thing necessarily but, uh, sometimes it wasn't the most convenient."

Stef looked up at Alexandra, who was nodding and listening intently, no doubt soaking up as much information as she possibly could.

"He didn't exactly approve of my relationship with Lena. Didn't even come to our wedding, actually," Stef said, slightly bitter.

"Seriously?" Alexandra asked quietly, looking up with Stef with big, sad eyes. Stef stifled a sigh. She couldn't do this to her. She couldn't break her heart like this anymore. She knew she must've put him on a pedestal, and she couldn't bear to ruin that image entirely. After all, Frank really wasn't a bad guy. And Stef missed him – missed him a lot. Stef just happened to blame a lot on him, for her own insecurities and fears. Whether that was justified or not, she didn't know, but her father wasn't a bad guy. Not really. He always wanted what was best for her. Sometimes he just had a little trouble showing it.

"But there were so many good qualities about him, too," Stef smiled slightly.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she nodded, thinking back to all the good memories. "He was caring, protective, and he'd always have your back. He was generous, too. Bought us this car actually just a few days before he died."

Alexandra smiled. She liked that. That was a good image to have. She was sitting in a seat her father had bought, a seat he'd touched. In a way she felt more connected to him, even if it was just a car.

Stef recalled all the snapshots she had filed in her brain, down to the vivid details. How he'd always take her to the parks on Sunday and push her on the swings. How he'd helped her build a birdhouse. How he bandaged her up when she scraped a knee. How he mortified her by intimidating the crap before her first high school dance when her date showed up. How he'd teased her about her misconceptions of snow. "He was all about his family," she said, reminiscing, it slipping before she had a chance to think about it.

Her eyes snapped back to focus on Alexandra, whose smile slipped off her face, now to be replaced by pursed lips and a wrinkling forehead.

"I'm sorry, I didn't -"

"Do you think he knew? About me, I mean?"

Stef was starting to feel like she was the one being interrogated. Except this time it was questions she had no answers to. Questions only a dead man knew.

"I don't know, sweets," Stef said, the affectionate term naturally slipping without her consent. But was that really such a bad thing? "I don't know."

Alexandra nodded, looking down at her hands. "Well, I should probably go get my stuff now," she said, beginning to climb out the door.

"Alexandra?" Stef asked, stopping her in her tracks.

"Yeah?" she turned to face her.

"You need some help?"

Alexandra thought about it for a moment, but in the end decidedly shook her head. "Nah, I think I got it."

Stef nodded. "Okay. Well, I'll just wait here then," she said, pulling out her phone in the meantime.

"Oh, and Stef?" Alexandra said. "You can call me Alex, you know. If you want, I mean. Alexandra just sounds so formal, you know?" she shrugged, a hand still on the car door handle.

Stef nodded, giving her a small smile, "go get your stuff, Alex," she said, purposely tacking on the new name.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe she really did just want to know a little about her father and that would be that and it would all be okay. She seemed responsible enough. Besides the nose-ring, she seemed to have a decent head on her shoulders. Maybe she was overreacting and this would all just be an odd blip on the radar.

Stef began to scroll through her emails, passing the time before Alex came back. Suddenly, she saw a light blinking from the seat next to her. Alex had forgotten her phone when she went in to retrieve her things.

She shouldn't do it. She couldn't. That would be a complete invasion of privacy, one that Lena would give her hell for if she ever found out Stef was even thinking about. It was inappropriate and wrong and none of her business….but was it?

She couldn't say that she felt totally at ease about this girl. Sure, they had had a little moment discussing Frank, but she still had a gnawing suspicion she didn't know Alex's whole story. It was too strange a situation, right? And if something was going on, she had a right, no, a _duty_ to find out and protect her family, to make sure her wife and kids were safe first and foremost.

The phone blinked again. The damn thing was taunting her. It was now or never. God, this was terrible timing. Before she could stop herself, she quickly swiped her finger across the screen. Thank God she didn't have one of those pass codes her kids were so fond of. Not that those were too hard to crack. Mariana's was her birthday for God's sake. She didn't snoop often, just when she felt it was necessary. And after the whole Ana fiasco, she had enough ammunition to hold over the girl's head until she had kids of her own.

'_Two new messages from Jackson'_ the home screen informed her. She entered into the texting inbox, what she saw making her blink, her breath catching a bit. "Shit," she muttered, seeing Alex making her way back to the car, a few bags of luggage in her hands.

She quickly clicked off the phone and placed it back where it had been before messing with it. She had to act casually. That was definitely something she was not supposed to see, and she was at a loss for what to do. She would have to wait until she could think things over a little more and possibly discuss this with Lena. All she knew was that she was going to have to keep an eye on this girl – a very close eye.

"You get everything?" she asked, plastering on a small smile. "Here, I'll help you load that stuff in the trunk," Stef said, popping the back open and taking some of her bags.

"Uh, thanks," Alex said as she transferred some of the bags to Stef.

"Well, let's hit the road again. When you get back you'll meet everybody," Stef said, trying to distract herself from what she'd seen.

"Everybody? Who's everybody?" she said, wrinkling an eyebrow, lifting her phone off the seat and into her lap.

"Well, you've met Lena, but you still have to meet the kids," Stef said, trying to do the near-impossible multitasking job of driving, holding conversation, and watching Alex carefully, to see if she could gauge a reaction.

She saw a small flash of light from the corner of her eye, no doubt another texting notification. She studied Alex carefully as she saw the girl pick up the phone, her lip twitching down into a small frown.

"That okay?" she asked, on the surface about meaning the kids, but really asking about whoever Jackson was, sending her texts from the other end of the line.

"That's fine," Alex said nonchalantly, putting her phone in her pocket and facing the front window.

Stef's lips formed into a line. Things certainly weren't fine. She couldn't get those text messages from tossing and tumbling around in her head. _I know what you did_, the first had said. It was accompanied seconds later by another, one that sent chills down her spine.

_You're dead._

**Oh snap. Thanks as always for your wonderful reviews - your feedback is awesome and much appreciated. And special thanks to Liz and Grace for being amazing and helping me with this!**


	5. Chapter 5

"We're home!" Stef called as she opened the door to the house, a duffel bag slung across her shoulder, her purse in her hand. "I do have to warn you, there's a lot of us. Try not to get too overwhelmed," Stef turned to inform Alex, who was trailing behind her, her suitcase and a backpack in hand. "Here, I'll set these down for you," she said, putting the luggage in the corner of the room between the couch and side table.

Stef had to hand it to her, she was traveling extraordinarily light, assuming this was all of her stuff and she intended to remain in California for an extended period of time. She had only three, relatively small bags containing her belongings. It made her a little sad, and even slightly reminiscent, remembering how little Callie and Jude had had when they first moved in – even a smaller collection than Alex's. She also couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. Was it possible that her light packing and the text messages had something to do with each other? She could be on the run and grabbed whatever she could before making a quick getaway…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of feet pounding down the stairs, a stampede of people rushing down to curiously greet the new guest. Stef cast a glance at Lena, who nodded. She had informed the kids what was going on, which Stef was all too grateful for. As if she needed another task right now.

Stef made her way back over to where Alex was still standing at the doorway. She hadn't moved from her spot since Stef had taken her bags, and the sudden influx of new people had frozen her feet to the floor. And it seemed as if her feet weren't the only ones frozen.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the kids had fanned out, forming a small half circle, facing Alex. It was like some bizarre force field had inhabited and taken over the room, splitting it down the middle. Lena, seeing the awkward separation, pushed through the line of five children over to where Alex and her wife were standing in the entryway. She had always been better at introductions.

Lena cleared her throat, placing a hand on Alex's shoulder, an act of inclusion. "So, as I told you guys, this is Alex," she said simply.

Alex nodded and offered a hesitant smile. Stef wasn't kidding about there being a lot of them. She should have known, anyhow. She vaguely remembered Lena rambling off a list of people she could possibly be here for when she answered the door, and she was guessing that's who she was looking at now.

"Alex, these are our children," Lena said generally, motioning towards the group as a whole.

"How?" Alex blurted out, without thinking.

_Shit. _

Sometimes her mouth worked way faster than her brain. It was a problem. Her filter malfunctioned more often that she liked to admit.

"I'm sorry?" Stef asked, before Alex could even open her mouth to explain herself.

"No, that's not what I was asking," she said quickly. "I was just asking…I just meant…I mean I-" she stuttered out. She was so screwed. In addition to Stef's indignant response, the rest of the room didn't look too pleased with her either – their facial expressions a mixture of disgust, hardness, and wide-eyed shock.

Thankfully, Lena gave a small laugh, though Alex could tell it was forced.

"It's all right. We're obviously not the most traditional," she said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

She really didn't mean to be rude, but come _on._ It's not like they could be completely oblivious to what she was referring too, right? There were two female parents and three different ethnicities being represented. Wouldn't everybody be a little curious? How did that work?

"Let's take it from the top," Lena said. "This is Brandon, he's Stef's biological child from a previous marriage," she said, motioning to the tallest, oldest looking boy on the far left, who was basically shooting sullen daggers at her. It wasn't hard to imagine him as Stef's kid.

"Next to Brandon, we have Jesus," she continued, causing a head nod from the muscular Latino boy. "We fostered him and his sister," she said, moving her hand to indicate the girl standing next to him, her mouth in a solid, straight, unreadable line, "Mariana for awhile, and then adopted them a couple of years ago."

Lena licked her lips, her eyebrow twitching a bit as she wracked her brain on the proper introductions for the last two in line. "And this is Callie and her little brother Jude. Currently we're fostering them, but plans for adoption are in the works," she said, causing Callie to smile and Jude's face to light up. His eyes sparkled, and Alex's heart melted, though she'd only first set eyes on the boy moments ago.

"Think you can remember all that?" Alex felt Stef's bony elbow nudge her. She knew she didn't mean it. Her eyes showed that she was still slightly put off by her earlier blunt, and admittedly extremely inappropriate, comment, but at least she was making an effort. Or faking an effort. Still, it was better that openly hating her, especially in front of these kids. It would be good to have as many of them as possible on her side, considering she was extremely outnumbered.

"I'm definitely going to try," Alex replied. She almost outwardly cringed at the painful awkwardness that took over the room afterwards.

Relived that the introductions were out of the way, Lena figured it would be a good time to split off. It had been a long day and a seemingly endless night, and everybody needed some time alone to process this. It wasn't helping matters that Brandon was still shooting Alex an intense glare.

Lena made a show of checking her watch and forcing out a yawn. "Well, it's getting late you guys. Maybe wrap up the welcoming party and head off to bed?"

Alex breathed a nearly-audible sigh of relief. God bless Lena.

"Yes, that sounds like a plan," Stef solidified the suggestion that was much more order than proposal. "Goodnight, everyone, I'll be up soon," she said.

"Night, moms," Jesus replied. "Night, Alex. Or should I call you Auntie?" he grinned a mischievous smile, his joking nature unrepressed even with so much tension. His lightheartedness could be both a blessing and a curse.

"Um," Alex stuttered, letting out a hesitant laugh, but giving a small smile despite herself. She'd take the awkward jokes over biting insults any day.

"Bed. Now," Stef said, sending Jesus up the stairs with a pat on the back that was far too harsh to be a purely affectionate gesture.

"You stay," she whispered harshly, grabbing the sleeve of Brandon's shirt. She didn't want to make a scene, but she had something important to address, preferably in more private quarters for the sake of everyone's feelings and dignity.

Seeing the subtle, yet commanding, interaction out of the corner of her eye, Lena took this as a cue to distract the only other person in the room.

"Why don't I go help you get situated for the night," Lena said, directing Alex's attention the opposite way of where Brandon and Stef were standing. "We were just going to have you shack up in the living room for awhile, if that's all right?"

"Yeah, sounds totally fine. Thanks," Alex responded, thankfully seemingly obvious to the other situation.

"Excellent. Why don't you help me pick out some sheets?" she suggested, guiding Alex into the living room, leading her to the closet containing the various extra sheets, pillows, and blankets.

Stef took this as an opportunity to pull her son towards the den on the opposite side of the first floor. "Hey," she said, giving him a serious look, taking his shoulders and angling him so he was face-to-face with her. "I get it. I do. This is a lot, more than a lot; it's almost too much to handle right now. I know that that's what it feels like to you, and you're right. This sucks and it isn't fair and it shouldn't be happening, but guess what, it is."

"Mom, I just-" he interrupted.

"I'm talking," she silenced him, holding up a finger. "You have every right to feel what you're feeling. But what you don't have a right to do is treat Alex or anyone else with disrespect. While she is here you are to be civil and you are to show respect to her and everyone else in this house. Is that clear?" she asked, cocking a challenging eyebrow.

Brandon reluctantly nodded in that sulky, teenage way of his. God Stef hated that nod. But she figured it was probably as good as she was going to get all things considering. And was it bad if she didn't completely blame him?

"It's not easy on any of us, B," she said, the authoritative edge slipping from her tone, her voice becoming gentler. "It's hard, and it's going to be hard on all of us. But you know that this changes absolutely nothing, right?" she asked, rubbing his arm.

"But grandpa, and-"

"But nothing. Nothing's changed," she whispered, placing a kiss on his temple. It bothered her to no end that she practically had to stand on her tip-toes to reach him now. Who said he was allowed to get older and outgrow her?

_Maybe nothing's changed_, she thought to herself, _but things sure the hell would never be the same. _

**What'd you think of the introductions? Awkward, right? Almost as awkward as the dinner scene in last week's episode. Yowza. Your feedback is fabulous, you all are fabulous, and please keep continuing to be fabulous. Thank you to you all, and thanks to Liz and Grace for making sure my writing doesn't (hopefully completely) suck. **


	6. Chapter 6

Stef sighed as she flopped down into bed. Finally, _finally_, the day was over and she could get some rest. She began to reach for the remote to her bed (it still felt funny saying that. Remote? To a bed? As weird and foreign a concept, it was equally as wonderful, she hated to admit. Her mom was right, the bed was damn comfortable), before a thought popped into her head. Shit. She'd forgotten The Very Important Thing she'd needed to discuss with Lena.

Groaning, she practically threw the remote back on the table in frustration. She really did not want to have this conversation, for more reasons than one. Not only would it be a difficult conversation to have, with serious subject-matter, but no doubt Lena wasn't going to be happy with her, and the dog house was far from her favorite place to be.

"Something wrong? Well, besides the obvious, that is," Lena asked, looking up from her book as Stef's remote harshly clattered onto the table.

Stef put an arm on her forehead. "Yes," she let out a heavy breath, "of course there is because clearly our lives were beginning to get just a bit too easy."

Lena set her book on her lap, giving her wife her full attention.

Stef peeked out an eye from her hiding spot under her arm, reluctantly sitting up. Lounging probably wasn't going to be the best way to have this conversation.

She cleared her throat. "As you know, I took Alex to go pick up her things today-"

"I am aware of this. I forced you to go, remember? Practically pushed you out the door kicking and screaming…ring a bell?" Lena replied, giving her wife a small smile.

Stef rolled her eyes. "The sass," she said, though she couldn't help but give a tiny smirk herself. "But um, yes. We went to go get her things," she continued, getting the conversation back on track, not wanting to delay it any longer. "And while she was inside grabbing her bags, she-"

"Whoa, you didn't even help her with her bags?" Lena interrupted.

"Hey, I offered, she insisted I not," Stef responded defensively. If Lena was that put out by the lack of bag carrying, though, she knew she was going to be in much deeper soon.

"Fine, fine, go on," Lena said, hands in the air, though her voice still held a disapproving, and slightly skeptical, tone.

"As I was saying," Stef said pointedly. "While she'd gone inside, she left her phone on the passenger seat-"

"Oh God, Stef, please don't say what I think you're about to say."

"Could you let me finish?" Stef asked in mock-frustration. "Besides how do you know what I'm going to say? It's probably not at all what it sounds like," she crossed her arms petulantly.

"Did you go through her phone, Stef?" Lena asked without missing a beat, her eyebrows raised, her arms crossed interrogatively.

"All right, so it's exactly what it looks like, but still-"

"Stef, how could you do that to her?" Lena whispered with indignant harshness.

"I had my reasons, Lena," Stef said, turning more serious.

"Your reasons, Stef?" Lena asked angrily. "There's no good reason for that, it's a complete invasion of her privacy. How is she supposed to trust us if we sneak around her back snooping through her stuff within the hour she gets here?"

"Well how do you know we can trust _her _Lena? Huh?" Stef asked, starting to match her irritation.

"Well I'd like to think you could give her the benefit of the doubt," Lena snapped.

"Well maybe that would've been nice Lena, but we can't always give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Not everyone in the world is a good person."

"You think I don't know that?" Lena asked, becoming more infuriated at the antagonizing comments.

"That's not," Stef sighed, rubbing at her forehead in frustration. "That's not what I meant," she said, her voice calmer and softer now.

"So what did you mean?" Lena asked, tightening her jaw.

"What I mean is, you're right; I should not have read those texts. It was wrong of me to do so. But I can't go back in time and unread them, and even if I had the chance to, I wouldn't. I am glad I did, because let me tell you, there's something that girl is not telling us."

Lena rolled her eyes. "Come on, Stef-"

"There were death threats, Lena," Stef said quietly, prompting Lena to snap her head over to face Stef.

"What?"

Stef sighed. "They were from somebody named Jackson. Said something like 'I know what you did and now you're dead.'"

Lena's mouth gaped open slightly, her eyes shocked. That was something she definitely wasn't expecting. She'd thought Stef was just being paranoid, but this serious.

She took a deep breath. "Well we have to do something."

"I know."

"We have to talk to Alex."

"I know, love."

Lena closed her eyes. "What are we gonna do?" she asked softly.

Stef shook her head. "I don't know. I was kind of hoping you'd have some ideas."

The two were silent for a few moments, thinking it over. Processing it all. Hoping that one of them would get the stroke of perfect genius, the foolproof solution to it all.

"Should we talk to her tonight?" Lena asked.

"No," Stef replied. "It's late. I think one night will be all right. We're all tired, I don't think anyone's really up for that conversation right now."

"You're right, a little sleep could probably do us all some good."

"So tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow," Lena nodded in agreement. "I was thinking it might be a good idea to do it without all the other kids here too…"

"I could take tomorrow off? Might be a good idea anyway…not sure how great I feel about her being alone in our house half the day…" Stef mumbled the last part under her breath.

"Stef," Lena slapped her on the arm gently. "Why can't you play nice?"

"Sorry. I'm tired, lack of sleep does these things to me," she said. "But do you think you could at least come home at lunch or something so we can tackle this together? And, you know, keep us from potentially mauling each other if things go south?"

"Yes, I suppose I could do that," Lena replied, ignoring the last part. "So it's settled, tomorrow at lunch we go in for the kill."

"Tomorrow at lunch," Stef parroted, flipping off the light and lowering her bed. "I can't wait."

Alex lay down on the couch, following the constant, hypnotizing oscillating motion of the fan above her. This was all so weird. She couldn't even begin to organize her thoughts. The past few days had gone by in a blur, everyone and everything blending and rushing together in a haze.

Jackson. Her father. Stef. Lena. Their kids. It was a lot, and she couldn't even begin to piece it all together, so instead of trying, she figured she'd try to just get some sleep.

She flipped over onto her side, attempting to clear her head of all her jumbled thoughts. Of course, it wasn't working out too well for her. Simply too much had happened for her to easily shake it all away. It was weird, though, the thought that kept returning, the image that she couldn't seem to get out of her mind. It wasn't of Jackson or the texts. It wasn't the fact that her father was dead. It wasn't even the looks she'd gotten from everyone in the house tonight. It was the picture of Stef and Brandon in the kitchen.

Alex wasn't stupid. As well as Lena meant, Alex saw right though her act of 'helping her set up her bed and get situated.' She had been trying to keep her away from something, from seeing something, which of course made Alex all the more interested.

She'd caught a glimpse of it when she strategically snooped, using the excuse that she needed to use the restroom as she inched her way to the kitchen. She'd heard the tail end of the conversation.

She'd seen Stef looking stern with Brandon, her voice serious and her finger wagging intimidating him…about her. She'd told him that he had to respect her, and although Alex knew that it was beyond stupid, that kind of meant a lot to her. That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever really done for her, and she knew it was stupid and pitiful and Stef probably just said it because she didn't need another battle breaking out, it was still nice. The sentiment and the idea of it at least – Stef, her big sister, sticking up for her.

And then she'd turned around and kissed his forehead and told him that everything was going to be okay and Alex had stupidly felt a twinge of jealousy. It was dumb, it was so, so dumb, but inside she still longed for that. She'd never had that relationship with anyone, much less a parent. Deep down maybe she thought she'd come here and find her father and that would change after all these years. Her yearning would finally be quenched, her prayers would finally be answered, and someone would finally care enough to give her a hug and maybe even chastise her from time to time.

_Delusional. _

Alex sighed. There wasn't going to be much sleep happening tonight. She figured a glass of water wouldn't hurt, to pass the time and, if she got lucky, even clear her mind a bit.

She walked into the kitchen as quietly as possible, opening a couple cabinets until she located the cups. She turned on the tap and filled up the glass until she heard footsteps entering the kitchen, freezing her in her place.

The mixture of a new environment and past memories crept up all at once, irrationally sending her heartbeat racing. She took a deep breath, composing herself, before she turned to face whoever had entered.

"Alex?" one of the children whispered, the brunette, older one.

"I would whisper your name back, but I'm drawing a blank," she responded in the same tone.

The girl gave a small laugh. "Callie," she replied, grabbing a glass of her own.

"Right. I knew that."

"No, you didn't. But it's okay, I understand. It's pretty unfair when it's seven-on-one your first night here. We only have to remember one name, when you've got more than half a dozen."

They both let out a small laugh before the room was taken over with an uncomfortable silence. Alex decided to take the opportunity to speak up.

"Listen, about earlier, my comment about how Lena and Stef could be you parents; I didn't mean to be-"

Callie held up a hand. "Don't even, okay? I've been there; I've done that. This is…kind of a weird family for someone who doesn't know any better."

Alex nodded. "Still, I'm sorry. It was kind of rude of me."

"Please, you think that's bad? I called them dykes the day I got here."

"In those terms…?"

"Yup," Callie said, chuckling. "See, I take the cake."

Alex laughed a little as well. "That's awkward. I guess I don't feel quite as bad now."

"Good," Callie said, putting her cup in the sink. "We're not so bad, you know? I know it's pretty crazy now, but…we're not always like this. Once things die down, things will be okay."

Alex nodded in acknowledgement. "I believe you," she said, as Callie gave her one last smile and went back upstairs.

"At least I want to."

**Next chapter all will be revealed. (Well, not all. Not like the meaning of life or whatever, but you'll find out who this Jackson fellow is.) Thanks for reading and please review! Your feedback is always very much appreciated. **

**Shoutouts to Liz and Grace. Y'all are cool for helping me with this story.**


	7. Chapter 7

Lunch was usually Stef's favorite time of day, but today, she was dreading it. She was not looking forward to the discussion she and Lena would have to have with Alex. She couldn't picture it going well, no matter what angle they tackled it from.

The only thing she was looking forward to was the fact that Lena would be coming home. Not only did she want her wife with her, but she imagined Alex would welcome her presence as well. It was pretty obvious that of the two of them, Alex had taken more to Lena, and Stef guessed she couldn't really blame her. It felt wrong somehow, though. They were related, shouldn't there be some instant connection? At this point she was just feeling lucky that their interaction had been limited, even with them being the only two in the house that morning.

Alex had slept in late, which Stef couldn't exactly blame her for either. The trip from New Jersey to California wasn't exactly a picnic. Jet lag would make anyone exhausted. So Stef had let her sleep in, not only out of pity, but what would be the point in getting her up? It would only lead to long periods of unnecessary awkwardness.

When she had finally woken up, they'd said quick, mindless 'good mornings' before Alex inquired about a shower, which Stef happily permitted. She should have thought to offer, but she tried to make up for it by retrieving a towel for her and pointing out the best kind of shampoo they owned (a brand Mariana insisted on having that cost so much Stef figured if she and Lena made her switch, they'd save enough to put her through college).

By the time she was done showering, it was a little after eleven, and Stef informed her that, though she was more than welcome to grab something for breakfast, Lena would be joining them for lunch soon.

Alex had agreed to wait until lunch rolled around, and they spent the rest of the morning in uncomfortable silence, sitting an unusually far distance apart on opposite sides of the room - Stef on the couch, Alex in the chair - staring at the television neither one of them was really watching. Needless to say, they both breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the front door open, Lena's unmistakable trot making its way into the house.

"Well hello you two," she said, swinging her purse off her shoulder and tossing it on the table. "Have a good morning?"

Alex nodded. _Had_ she had a good morning? She wasn't sure if she could even categorize it as good or bad, honestly. It kind of just…was.

"Yeah, morning was fine. Got off to a bit of a late start though," Stef said.

"Well, that's to be expected," Lena said, squeezing Alex's shoulder before making her way over to the couch where Stef was still seated. "What with jetlag and all. Or car-lag? How exactly did you get here, anyway?" she furrowed an eyebrow. How had she had she not thought to ask something as basic as that?

"Oh, uh, just…public transportation," Alex stuttered. "Subways, buses, trains, taxis, just different things."

Stef cocked an eyebrow. Not only did her inconsistent ways of travel seem suspicious, but she noticed the hesitation and the aversion of her eyes as she said it. She worked with liars all day; she knew the signs by now. However, she decided not to push her means of travel. There were more important matters to attend to.

"So," Lena said, casting a side-glance at Stef. She was not about to handle this conversation alone. They agreed they were going to do this as a team. "How are you feeling?" Lena asked, smiling at Alex as she took a seat next to Stef, her hands folded.

Alex sunk down in her chair a little. She was starting to think Lena was home for a little more than just lunch. Honestly she felt a little intimidated, these two women facing her. It almost felt like they were watching her every move. "Well, to be honest I kind of feel like I'm in the Godfather or something."

Stef smirked. "Well don't worry, we're not about to make you an offer you can't refuse," she said. No matter what the situation, she wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to quote a classic.

Lena let out a half-laugh as well. "No, we're not, but we do want to talk to you about something," she said, her voice growing more serious.

"Okay…" Alex said slowly.

"Stef," Lena prompted, clearing her throat.

Stef sighed. She wished Lena could handle this part while she could just keep quoting mobster movies, but she knew it wasn't fair to make her do that. This was something that she had to do.

"Okay, so Alex," she started, frantically trying to word this in the best possible way. "Yesterday I saw something that I feel we need to discuss."

"Okay…" Alex repeated, not having the slightest clue as to what she was talking about, but trying not to think of the million things she could be talking about. It was probably nothing. It had to be nothing. She'd been too careful to let her see anything, right?

Stef paused before going in for the kill. "Who's Jackson?"

Alex's face immediately went pale, although she did her best to hide it. However, the instantaneous reaction didn't go unnoticed by either of the two women, and it only confirmed their suspicions that this was something serious.

"Why…why would you ask that? How did you even get that name?" Alex asked with confusion, wracking her brain for any sign she could've let something slip or given them any cause to inquire about him.

Stef pursed her lips. "He popped up on your phone yesterday, and I'm just concerned judging by what he said that-"

"Whoa, you read my texts?" Alex asked, jumping up from the chair. Her racing heart dropped into her stomach, and she felt like she was going to get sick. She was panicked and mad, but channeled the second emotion.

"Just hear me out-" Stef said, slowly standing as well to match her height, trying to remain calm.

"Hear you out? You completely invaded my privacy, what is there to hear out? You had no right!" Alex shot back.

"Hey, you're staying under our roof, we had a little right," Stef said, her tone instinctually slipping into one of parental authority.

"Oh really? Because if I remember correctly I never asked you to do that. I would've been perfectly fine on my own, but you insisted that I stay here," Alex fired back, willing her voice not to break.

Lena took this as her cue to intervene. The yelling wasn't going to get them anywhere. "You're right," she said, standing as well, putting up her hands. "It was wrong of her to read your texts, and it's not going to happen again," she promised, shooting a pointed look at Stef. "But," she said, returning her attention to Alex, "we can't change what happened. And we _do_ need to talk about what she saw," she said gently. "So let's all sit down and discuss this calmly."

Alex took a deep breath, lowering herself back onto the chair. "There's really nothing to talk about," she said after she'd composed herself.

"It was a death threat. Come on," Stef snapped.

"Honey," Lena said, ignoring her wife, "we're just concerned for your safety, that's all. We're not mad or trying to pry, we're just worried about you and we think that if something serious is going on, if you are in any trouble, we could easily help you."

"I know what I'm doing," Alex said, her jaw locked, her arms crossed.

"I have no doubt that you do," Lena assured her. "It's just, we have resources. You know, Stef's a cop and I've dealt with my fair share of things like cyber bullying-"

Alex snickered without humor. "It's not cyber bullying."

"Then what is it?" Lena softly pried.

Alex sighed, looking over at her. She only was trying to help. Lena's intentions were good, she knew, but she had no idea. And she couldn't find out. They couldn't help her. "It's just…an ex-boyfriend," she said, trying to be as vague as possible without lying. "He's bitter. It's stupid."

"It's not stupid if he's threatening you," Stef said, speaking up. She didn't like where this could be headed. As much as she hated to admit it, this sounded an awful lot like the opening lines of a situation she dealt with every day. She may not be the biggest fan of Alex, but she didn't wish that on anyone. No one should have to be a victim of that.

"They're not real threats," Alex promised. "Jackson's…complicated," she searched for the most generous word she could think of. "He tends to overreact. He has a temper, but he's not dangerous."

"A temper?" Stef questioned, almost fully submerged in questioning cop mode.

"You know, yelling, slamming doors, smashing his fists into walls, that sort of thing," Alex said. There she went again, running her mouth. Now Stef's questions were coming quicker than she could think of appropriate responses. She'd given them an inch, and they'd taken a mile. Why had she let them know anything at all? She should've lied, told them it was all just a joke, but of course, it was too late to change her story now.

"Well does he have a history of being violent?" Stef asked.

Alex froze momentarily, her breath stopping. Could she have seen? Did she know? "No," she said hesitantly, a beat too late. She instinctually pulled on her sleeve. She had to hide it. "I mean not really."

Stef's mind flashed back to other instances, to other girls who had said the exact same things, had the exact same excuses, gone though the exact same motions.

Everyone dealt with it differently. Interventions came in different forms. Alex, it seemed, would need a wake up call. It wouldn't be comfortable. It wouldn't be pretty. But it needed to happen, because it wasn't okay.

Stef knelt on the ground in front of the chair, gently but firmly grabbing her arm.

"Don't," Alex commanded, but with little resistance. She knew she wasn't getting out of this. She'd been too obvious, and now she knew.

Stef ignored the protest, wasting no time sliding the sleeve of her shirt midway up her arm, revealing exactly what she expected. And, although she'd anticipated it, it didn't make it any easier. It never got easier, no matter now many times she saw it.

"So this is…?" she asked, referring to the mosaic of bruises running from her wrist to her forearm. She heard Lena sucking in a breath and wincing quietly behind her.

"I hit it on a table?" Alex said, the statement coming out like a question. She knew there was no way Stef was going to buy it, but it was her final resort.

"Oh, I didn't realize tables had fingers," Stef said sarcastically, noticing the guilty look clouding Alex's face. "Want to maybe try that again?" she asked, still sternly but with an unmistakable tenderness now present in her voice.

"It was only one time," Alex defended quietly, looking down at the floor, her gaze refusing to meet Stef's eyes or her battered arm.

"One time too many," Lena gritted her teeth, practically growling.

"It was my fault, really," Alex promised. "I provoked him. We were at home-"

"It's not your fault," Stef said with conviction. There was absolutely no way in hell she was going to allow her to blame herself.

"Stef, hear me out," she said, brushing her off. "He just -"

"It's not your fault," she interrupted her a second time, shaking her head.

"All right, I heard you, I get it, but-"

"Say it," Stef demanded.

Alex sighed, growing annoyed. "Okay, it's not my fault, whatever," Alex said quickly, unconvinced. She needed to change the subject. "But anyway-"

"Say it again," Stef commanded.

"Stef," she rolled her head back, placing a hand on her forehead. This was growing exhausting.

"Alex, I swear to God, until you look me in the eye and tell me that it's not your fault and truly mean and believe it, I'm not letting you off this chair," Stef said, stubbornly crossing her arms. As silly as it may have seemed, it was important. Though the strategy may be questionable, it was all she could think of to do.

Alex looked over pleadingly at Lena for support, begging her to save her from this craziness.

Lena simply shrugged, much to Alex's dismay. "She's right, honey."

"About it not being my fault or about not letting me off the chair?" Alex deadpanned.

"Both," Lena said, forcing a small smile. This revelation was breaking her heart, the fact that Alex truly believed she had put herself in the situation to get hurt making it all the more painful.

Alex sighed, because truth be told, she didn't really believe what she was about to say. It _had_ been her fault. She'd made the mistakes that led to this, and she deserved what she got. However, she managed to say it as convincingly as possible. She tried to pass her tone off as nonchalant, as if this whole situation was dumb. But truth be told, she really was hurting, and in disbelief, and even a little touched that Stef cared enough to make her do this, no matter how silly or untrue it was.

She met Stef's eyes. It was hard. There was warmth there, warmth she desired, but warmth she couldn't have. She'd already let them know one big secret; she couldn't have the domino effect happen. They couldn't know any more.

"It's not my fault," she said, a hint of sass to hide everything.

Stef squinted, searching her eyes. She knew she thought the mantra was bullshit, but that didn't mean she was going to stop trying to convince her it was legitimate. Victims of this kind of domestic violence usually took some convincing. The circle of abuse and blame was hard to break, and it didn't happen overnight. "Well that could use some improvement, but I suppose there's plenty of time for that. You were saying?"

"Uh," Alex wracked her brain, both trying to remember where she was before the detour and how she could end this conversation as quickly as possible. "I guess that's about it…"

"You said something about how you were at home," Lena said, redirecting the conversation. Alex suppressed the urge to shoot her a glare. Damn her for remembering.

"Right, so, you know, _this,_" she said, motioning to her arm. "Just happened when we were at home. That's about it."

"Whose home?" Stef questioned.

"Our…home?" Alex said, as if much was obvious. "Well, our apartment, if we're being technical," she corrected.

"You were living with the guy?" Stef asked, surprised, her tone disapproving.

"Well yeah. I mean, I was almost eighteen and I was emancipated, so it wasn't a big deal."

The room was overtaken with silence once again. No one quite knew what to say about any of it. _Was_ there anything to say? They all sat quietly, consumed by her own thoughts, until Lena happened to catch a glimpse of her watch.

She let out a curse, a very rare occurrence for Lena. Stef would've teased her if it wasn't for the tense nature of the moment.

"I'm late for a meeting," Lena said, standing up to grab her things. "I'll see you when I get home, okay?" she asked, sending both Stef and Alex looks asking if they'd be okay. She really didn't want to leave, but knew Karina would kill her if she missed this meeting. She hated to admit it, but she was almost happy to be escaping. She needed some time. At least she would be alone on the car ride back to school, moments of solitude she desperately needed after everything they'd just discovered.

She rushed over to the door. She was going to be late, but if she pushed a few speed limits, she should make it without doing too much damage. She pushed open the door, but couldn't help but take a moment to look back into the room. "Love you," she said into the room after a pause, before making her way out to the car.

Stef bit down on her lip. There went her safety net – the one person keeping her sane.

"You hungry?" Stef asked, standing up, wanting to get out of the living room and needing a distraction.

"I could eat," Alex replied, getting up as well and following Stef into the kitchen.

The awkward silence from the morning returned and ensued through lunch and the rest of the afternoon, leaving Stef to her thoughts.

_An underage girl living with her abusive boyfriend. Where the hell were her parents?_ She tried to push this thought away, however, when realization hit.

One of her parents was in California.

One of her parents was no longer alive.

One of her parents was Stef's.

**So Jackson…not a great guy. What'd you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks so much for the reviews, as always, your feedback is awesome. And thanks Liz for being my beta and Grace for not-being-my-beta-but-sort-of-kind-of-being-a-beta-type-person-ish.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Congratulations," Stef said as the door swung open, "you've won a free car," she chucked the set of keys to the Toyota at Brandon.

Brandon, both not athletic and not expecting a metal object to come flying at him the moment he set foot in the house, flinched as they arched towards him, fumbling them for a few seconds before looking at them with a confused expression. "What?" Brandon asked, thoroughly confused.

"The car, take it," Stef ordered.

"Wait, seriously? It's mine?" Brandon asked, his face lighting up.

"Yup. Well, for tonight at least." Stef chuckled in realization. "You didn't actually think you were getting it forever, did you? I thought you'd have picked up on my sarcasm by now."

Brandon's face dropped because for a split second he was kind of under the impression that he was getting it forever and he hadn't picked up on her sarcasm. Still, it was a rarity for him to get one of the two cars in a house full of seven – well eight at the moment – people, especially on a Thursday night. He'd take what he can get.

"Thanks, mom," he said, firmly grasping the keys in his hand, about ready to head up to his room to put his backpack and things from his piano lesson away.

"Uh-uh, not so fast," she replied, nabbing the back of his shirt to stop him. "There are conditions."

Brandon bit his tongue. Of course there was a catch. With his mom there was _always _a catch.

"You have to take your brothers and sisters out too."

Brandon nodded reluctantly; internally sighing (he wouldn't dare do it audibly in the company of his mother who was currently in seemingly a generous mood.) He loved his siblings, he did, but he was just kind of hoping that tonight he could get some time alone. Some 'Brandon Time.' He made a move to slump back up the stairs before his shirt was grabbed again.

"And," Stef said, looking directly at him, "you're taking Alex too."

His face automatically darkened, and Stef automatically noticed. "Brandon," she said warningly.

"I got it mom, play nice," he said, rolling his head back. "I still don't see why-"

"It doesn't matter if you see why; it's not up to you. So either you let Alex tag along or you don't get the car. And you can stay home all night and you can do homework and make a five-course dinner all by yourself that you have to serve to everyone and not actually eat and then take out the trash and do any other chores I can think of to torture you with until-" Stef threatened, breaking into a hyperbolic ramble.

"Well when you put it that way…" Brandon said, partly (all right, _mostly_) just because he wanted to get her to shut up.

"Excellent," Stef said plainly with a smile. Missionaccomplished. The rambling tactic worked every time on Brandon. It was so easy to wear him down. "Go tell the others you're going out and see if you can agree on something to do, all right?"

"Sure," Brandon said, digging the jagged end of the key into his palm to try and keep calm. "No problem."

"We have a problem!" Mariana shouted, storming into the kitchen, her heeled boots stabbing the floor as she stomped.

"And what's the problem, Miss Thing?" Stef asked casually, not even bothering to look up from her computer screen.

"You could not pay me enough to go to the mall with her," Jesus said, answering the question for her as he came striding in seconds after her.

Stef sighed. It seemed the crisis would not be so easily averted. Before she could open her mouth to try and diffuse the situation, her other trio of kids entered the room.

"Well, whatever we do, we're definitely not going to see whatever movie you want to see," Brandon told Jesus as Callie and Jude rounded out the five, walking in to join them.

"Why not?" Jesus asked, put-out and sincerely confused.

"Because it's a horror movie. It's supposed to be like the scariest movie of the year," Callie explained.

"So? All the more reason to see it," Jesus asked, crossing his arms.

"Nobody even likes those movies except for you, sicko," Mariana snapped with disgust.

"Isn't it rated R?" Jude piped up, Callie's hand on his shoulder.

"Well, yeah, buddy. But I'm sure you can handle it. You're tough, and we'll all be there," Jesus reassured him.

"You have to be seventeen to get into a rated R movie, genius," Brandon said, rolling his eyes and leaning against the counter.

"The mall has no age restriction," Mariana pointed out.

"So?" Jesus replied, ignoring his twin's comment, "Jude's close enough."

"I'm thirteen," Jude replied bluntly.

Jesus sighed loudly, figuring that he'd probably lost this battle. "Fine, whatever, no movie. But there's no way in hell I am going to the mall."

"What's wrong with the mall? It has shopping and a food court, what's not to like?!" Mariana threw her hands up.

"I'm going to have to vote 'no' on the mall too," Callie said.

Mariana shot her daggers. "As the only other girl, you're supposed to be on my side, you know. It's like part of the code. Like, out of respect," she said hostilely. Callie shrugged.

"No movie, no mall, what else is there?" Brandon asked.

"Putt-putt is fun. Or the aquarium," Jude suggested, which was met with a chorus of groans from the older kids.

"You know, I still don't see why the mall is out," Mariana said stubbornly.

"Oh my god, give it up Mariana!" Jesus yelled, exasperated, which led to a series of more shouting and disagreements.

Lena opened her door to find herself in the middle of the warzone. She could hear the screaming from outside.

"Hey!" she yelled, shutting the back door and powering into the kitchen, in the middle of the action. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice raised. The room automatically got silent as the kids looked at her. Lena rarely ever yelled, so when she did, they knew that she demanded their full attention. She raised an eyebrow. "Someone going to give me an answer?" she asked as they all stared back at her, bashful and nervous.

"Stef?" Lena asked, her eyebrow dipping, just noticing her wife tapping away on her computer, oblivious to the chaos around her.

"Hm?" Stef looked up at her casually.

"Were you going to try to handle this, or…?" she asked, motioning to where the kids were standing.

Stef sighed, removing her reading glasses. "I started to, but I gave up. I figured they could figure it out amongst themselves."

"And how was that working for you?" Lena asked, arms crossed.

Stef shrugged, still lounging in the kitchen chair. "There was progress being made. Movie, mall, putt-putt, aquarium, and rollerblading are officially out of the question it seems."

Lena rubbed her forehead. She and Stef should've just forced them to go volunteer somewhere for the night or shipped them off to the library. Trying to get their five kids of all different ages and very different interests to agree on something was nearly impossible. But she knew that it was vital. Stef needed the house to herself tonight. It was too important to wait for, and she needed some privacy.

"Well, you guys are going to have to figure something out," Lena said with finality, prompting each kid to open their mouth to begin to voice their argument once again.

"Wait!" Lena said, before the disputes could start up again. Lena had never been more thankful for an entrance before, internally blessing Alex's perfectly-timed arrival. It's like it was choreographed. "Alex!" she greeted, overeagerly.

Alex's eyes widened at her energy. "Hi, Lena. Sorry, I was just using the bathroom," she apologized. She could feel all the eyes in the room on her and it was making her uncomfortable. "Uh, what'd I miss?" she asked.

"Well, we thought it might be nice for you to get out of the house for a bit, go out with the kids, maybe do something fun and they could show you around a bit? Get to know the town?" Lena questioned. "How does that sound?"

Alex shrugged, more than a little ill-at-ease with this proclamation, but swallowed back her fears. "Sounds great."

"Good," Stef said. "And since you're the guest, you get the honors of deciding what you all do tonight."

"Anything?" Alex asked.

"Anything," Stef confirmed nodding. "Well, within reason of course. No crossing state lines," she said, smirking a little at Callie. "And I'd prefer if you stayed away from tattoo parlors," she said, side-eying her other daughter, as it was an obvious dig at Mariana, though she bit her tongue a little, remembering the bit of ink she saw on Alex earlier. She was anything but fond of it, but she didn't want to condemn Alex. Not publicly, anyway.

"So I guess frat party's out of the question too?" Alex's lips curled into a small half-smile, though inside she had that same small nagging feeling again, seeing Callie and Mariana's guilty but amused expressions at Stef's joking, exclusive chastisements. She wasn't close enough to anyone to have inside jokes.

"Frat party is definitely out of the question," Lena said seriously, though she caught Stef smiling at her obvious question.

Alex pretended to be let down by this. "Well all right," she sighed. "So second choice," she racked her brain, trying to think of something appropriate and fun that everyone wouldn't hate her for. She went with the safest answer she could think of. "I mean, I like food," Alex shrugged. Everybody liked food, right?

"Food," Lena repeated. "Perfect, everybody needs to eat. Great idea, Alex," she clapped her hands together.

"And!" Stef held up a hand before anyone else could speak. "Before you all start bickering about the type of food or restaurant, I want to tell you that since you'll all be out together, curfew is at eight. Text or call if you need anything, please try not to kill each other, or at least if you do please try and keep the blood out of car because it's new. Oh, and have some fun, okay?" Stef ran down the list of last-minute announcements.

"Love you, see you in a few hours," Lena said as she ushered them out to the car, another debate already commencing about Chinese versus Italian versus American versus Thai cuisine.

Lena sighed as she shut the door, walking over to her wife in her now quiet, peaceful house.

"You have to do it, Stef," she said softly.

"I know," Stef responded, but not making a move to get up from her seat.

Lena went to retrieve the phone, gently placing it next to her.

"You have to do it, Stef," she repeated, taking the seat next to her and placing a hand on her back.

Stef raked a hand through her hair and nodded, picking up the phone and slowly dialing the numbers. They were numbers she had memorized, of course, but this time it was harder. This conversation would be much different than all the other times.

They picked up on the third ring. "Stefanie Marie, is that you doll?" the shrill voice asked.

"Mom," Stef started, taking a deep breath. "We need to talk."

**Whoa. How's the phone call with Sharon going to go? How's the dinner with the kids going to go? The episode last night was perfect, in my opinion. You know what else is perfect in my opinion? You all and your reviews. You guys are the best. **

**Liz and Grace, stay classy my friends and thanks for beta/idea-bouncing with me.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Talk about what? Are you calling me to rave about the bed? Oh I knew you'd grow to love it eventually-"

"It's not about the bed, mother."

"-but of course you didn't believe me. You're just so stubborn. If you'd only listen to me for once-"

"Mom, it isn't about the bed, okay?"

"-but no. Even after I said, even after I specifically told you 'oh, you simply have to try this bed it is divine,' what did you do? You didn't believe me. 'The bed we have is fine, we love our bed,' but now you can't live without it. I don't hate to say 'I told you so,' Stefanie because I'm not that kind of person. So I am going to rub it in and savor this moment as long and often as I can because-"

"Mom!" Stef raised her voice, putting a hand to her forehead as she felt Lena's hand on her shoulder. She now remembered why she never called her mother and why she sacrificed one of the children to answer the phone when she saw her number on caller ID.

Sharon stopped talking abruptly, obviously taking Stef's not-so-subtle hint that she needed to shut up because there was something important that needed to be said. But now that she had the floor, she wasn't quite sure what to do with it, and she longed for her mother's irritating bed rant just so she could have more time to sort her thoughts. How much did her mother know? How much did _she_ really know? And how was she even supposed to open that door to figure out?

"You should probably sit down for this," Stef warned into the phone, trying to buy herself some time.

Which of course Sharon was having none of. "Oh, just spit it out, I'll be fine," she said with an irritated sigh, which Stef matched with a sigh of her own, although hers more from exhaustion.

"Did you know dad had a daughter?" Stef asked, her voice an unusually low volume for her.

Sharon scoffed. "Is this some kind of trick question? Because you know I'm no good at these. Us old folks don't do well with these; our minds aren't as sharp as they once were."

Stef let out another heavy breath, saturated with frustration. A simple five-minute conversation could easily turn into a five-hour long one with her mother. And god knows this was going to be longer than a five-minute conversation to begin with. "No, mom, it's not a trick question, it's a legitimate one."

"Well then I'm obviously not understanding the confusion here. Clearly you are a product of Frank and me. Do we need to go back to the birds and the bees? I figured you were past that, darling."

"I am not talking about _me_, mother," Stef said, exasperated.

"Well I am not a mind-reader, Stefanie!" Sharon defended, equally riled up.

"I'm talking about the other daughter, mom."

"Whose other daughter?"

"Dad's other daughter."

"Darling are you feeling all right? Frank doesn't have another daughter."

"Alex would beg to differ."

"Who the hell is Alex?"

Stef chuckled out of frustration mixed with the sheer absurdity of the situation. "Well that's the real question, isn't it? All I know is that she's eighteen and she showed up at my door yesterday with a nose ring and the knowledge that we share a father," she blurted.

And for once in her life Sharon Elkin was speechless. Stef could hear the scraping of wood against tile. _Now she sits down_.

There were long moments of silence that ensued, but neither was going to rush this conversation. There was a tension running through the phone line, but there was a deep connection there as well, and Stef felt oddly comforted. Lena was right, talking really could make a person feel better, and as much as she hated to admit it, she and her mother were extremely similar. Stef took solace in the fact that her mom was still her mom and she was still here and alive and caring and easily accessible and ready to help.

They both sat quietly, holding the phones to their ears, until Stef heard a tapping on the other line, followed by a scratch.

"Mom, what-?" she started to inquire.

"Sh," Sharon said shortly, before the clicking and scratching continued.

"But mom-"

"Hush," she silenced her again. Stef shot Lena a confused look, to which Lena shrugged, simply rubbing her arm once again.

"Well," Sharon said with finality, presumably removing her reading glasses and placing them on the table from the vague sounds Stef could hear from her end of the line. She cleared her throat before speaking. "There is absolutely no way that girl is eighteen."

She took her time before responding, trying to gather her thoughts into words and interpret her mother's pronouncement. However, the best she could come up with was an eloquent "what?" while shaking her head, even more confused than before, if that was even possible.

"This Alex person is not eighteen," Sharon replied with disturbing casualness for the situation at hand.

"And how would _you_ know this?" Stef asked, rolling her eyes and deciding to play along.

"I can do math, Stefanie," Sharon asked, her tone almost insulted. Stef imagined the hand she wasn't holding the phone with was propped petulantly on her hip right about now.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Stef asked, squeezing her fist and throwing her head back to look at the ceiling. She swore, her mother spoke a language all her own – a mixture of English, riddles, and spitefulness.

Surprisingly, Sharon didn't return with a sassy, how-can-you-not-see-how-obvious-this-is reply. Instead, she sighed. "I think this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you that you might want to sit down, hon."

"I'm already sitting, mom."

"Are you alone? Because you probably should be alone. I don't want my grandbabies overhearing this."

"It's just Lena and me, mom," Stef said impatiently.

"Oh is Lena there too? Oh you should have said something, I didn't say hello. Way to make an ass out of your mother. Hello, Lena? How are you darling?" she asked, raising her voice.

"Hi, Sharon," Lena replied, leaning into the phone by Stef's chin. "I'm fine," she said, noticing Stef rolling her eyes at the interruption. But still, she couldn't be rude. She squinted, afraid to ask the next question. "How are you?"

Stef's head immediately snapped over to send her a death glare as she reached out to lightly slap her arm, vehemently shaking her head. She had broken the cardinal rule. _Don't ask Sharon an open-ended question unless you wanted a never-ending response._

"Oh I'm just fine, lovely, so sweet of you to ask. Although this little tidbit of news kind of puts a damper on things. You know, before-"

"Hey mom, can we please get back to the point," Stef requested, trying to reel it back in before Sharon's tangent got too in-detail and she was too far gone.

Sharon sighed. "Your father cheated on me," she said bluntly.

Stef knew it. Alex was proof of that, right? But it hadn't yet hit her until she said it, until it was laid out and put like that. Her dad had cheated on her mom. Her dad had been unfaithful and been with another woman while still married to her mom. That had actually happened, but it'd been a secret up until hours ago. They'd kept it a secret from her her whole life since it happened. She was never supposed to find out. "I realize that," she said, more to herself that to anyone else. She felt Lena's fingernails on her back, gently massaging.

"He told me he cheated on me. He told me the day after it happened. Old Frank never could keep a secret," Sharon chuckled, reminiscently.

"You're laughing about this?" Stef asked, indignantly. Stef found this odd, the fact that she was giggling about the memory of her husband cheating. And it made her mad. She was angry he had done this and she was even angry that Sharon had let him. She was angriest that no one ever told her.

"Oh sweetheart, it was a long time ago."

"But-"

"But nothing. Frank was a good guy. A pain in the ass, sure, but a harmless one."

"I wouldn't exactly call cheating on your wife harmless. That's why you got divorced, right?" Stef spat venomously. She was slowly piecing it together, the picture becoming clearer, painfully more in-focus now.

"Oh honey, your father and I were goners long before he cheated. We'd been fighting for months, hell, years even. It was bound to end soon, that was just what tipped us over the edge. I'm almost glad it happened, really. It was our breaking point. But with breaking points come new beginnings."

She was right, of course. Mike's alcoholism put them over the edge and now she had Lena. She wasn't bitter about it, because if she'd stayed she wouldn't have the life she had now, and God did she love the life she had now.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Stef asked.

"You already know the answer to that," Sharon replied.

Which, of course, she was right about as well. She couldn't resent them for trying to protect her.

Stef rubbed at her temples. "You didn't know about the kid?"

"No, I didn't."

"Did dad?"

"I don't know, love."

"But you know she's not eighteen?" she questioned skeptically.

Sharon paused. "Your father came to me on September 19th, 1996 confessing what he'd done."

"You remember the date?" Stef asked, surprised.

"There are some things you can never forget."

Stef accepted the answer, but did the math in her head. Sharon was right. If Frank told the truth, the girl was seventeen at most, and that was pushing it. Keyword _if_ he was telling the truth.

Stef ventured a question. "You're sure that's the first time he cheated?"

"I'd bet my grandbabies' lives on it," Sharon answered calmly.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Honey, he came and told me the day after he slept with another woman. Your father wasn't a secretive man, my dear. Not dishonest either, not by nature."

"Did he tell you her name? The woman's?"

"I didn't ask. I don't think I wanted to know."

Stef tapped her fingers on the table. "What do I do, mom?" she asked helplessly, beat. She'd take all the advice she could get. Her brain couldn't handle much more.

"I can fly in?" Sharon suggested.

"No," Stef replied quickly. "That'd just be...just…no. Not now, at least. I don't think it'd be the best time."

"I understand."

Silence engulfed them once again. Should this conversation be over? Would this conversation ever truly be over, or would it be an endless situation they'd be forced to tip-toe around and maneuver for the rest of their lives?

"You want my advice?" Sharon asked.

"For once, mom, I would love it."

"You have to talk to her."

"Well thank you for that groundbreaking suggestion," she said deadpan, unimpressed with the supposed wisdom she was going to instill.

"I'm serious, Stefanie," she chastised. "You have to really talk, let all the dirty laundry air out there before this gets even more mishmashed."

"Okay, mom," Stef rolled her eyes, pulling the phone away from her mouth, her finger hovering over the button. This was how she always ended it. What was stopping her from hanging up? For some reason her thoughts took her back to that day in the yard, seeing her daughter break down in front of her, possessing pain and anguish from over five years ago. _I should've kissed her goodbye_ hauntingly echoed through her brain, her heart aching at the memory. "I love you," she added, her verbal kiss goodbye. She didn't want another regret to add to her list.

"I love you too, darling," Sharon replied.

Stef laid the phone on the table, staring at it intently.

"What are we going to do?" Lena spoke up after awhile.

"Well obviously another conversation is going to have to take place, and I don't think we should have the other kids here while it happens. I mean, we could always go to the backyard, but the kids have windows in their bedrooms and they're not stupid. You know they'll watch - Ms. Thing lives for the drama."

"And this probably can't wait until tomorrow?" Lena asked. She hadn't heard the whole conversation, but she'd heard enough.

"The sooner the better," Stef replied the affirmative.

"We could send them back out for ice cream," Lena suggested.

"Sans Alex? After they were all just out? Yeah, that won't be suspicious."

"Well we're kind of limited on options," Lena asked, a little taken out by Stef's sarcastic irritability being aimed towards her. "Unless you just want to tell them the truth."

"We don't even know what the truth is, isn't that what the whole point of this is? To figure out the truth?"

"What do you want here, Stef?"

"When she gets back, I need to talk to her – really talk to her," Stef put her palms flat on the table.

"_I?_" Lena asked, picking up on the singularity.

"I think this is something I need to do alone. I know you're thinking that's the worst idea in the world considering my track record," she added upon clocking Lena's disbelieving facial expression, "but can you just trust me on this one?"

"I can do that," Lena nodded slowly.

"Can you make up an excuse to get the other kids out of here?"

"I can do that," she repeated.

"Can you kiss me?"

"I can do that."

Lena smiled and leaned in to give her wife a kiss, them both savoring their small oasis, their moment of tranquil peace. Nothing seemed so hard when they had their arms around each other. The moment was almost perfect, had it not been for all the thoughts running through Stef's head, distracting her.

A secret of Alex's had already been exposed. A lie of Alex's had already been uncovered. How many more secrets were there?

And how many lies had she already told?

**What did you think? Did you enjoy the bits with Sharon? Stef's mom is one of my favorite characters purely because Annie Potts plays her brilliantly. Thanks for all the reviews and support, you wonderful people. **

**Liz, Grace. You two are cool for the help. **


	10. Chapter 10

The car ride had been the definition of hell. No one even dared to speak during the ten minute trek except to decide that they'd be venturing to a little old Italian restaurant. For once in maybe ever, no one had argued about the pick, keeping silent because of the discomfort of the extra addition. Every painful stop of the stoplight, every tedious turn signal, every painstaking roundabout was filled with a silence too awkward for words.

Alex wanted to kiss the ground of the restaurant parking lot as Brandon parked the car and the group uncomfortably exited. Of course, it was very possible the dinner wasn't going to be any more enjoyable, but at least there'd be other people around. The crowd would at least provide some noise, and, you know, there was food too. Food was always a very good thing.

Brandon hesitated as he put their last name on the waiting list. "Foster," he'd stumbled a bit, looking directly and purposefully at Alex as he did it. 5/6 were Fosters, 83%, but Alex never would be. She was the odd one out, and she'd never fit into this family, her last name a glaring sign of that.

They all huddled into a corner as they waited for their name to be called and for them to be seated. Callie had her hands on Jude's shoulders; Mariana and Jesus were smashed together, looking at something on Mariana's phone, while Brandon leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his eyes still carefully fixated on her. What was the dude's problem, anyway? And could he please make his Edward-Cullen-like staring less obvious? It was starting to freak her out. She had to hold herself back from doing something completely immature like sticking her tongue out.

"Foster," the maître d called, leading them back to a table and handing them their menus. "Your server will be with you in a moment," he promised, leaving them to shuffle into the booth.

As expected, Callie and Jude slid into one end of the booth, Mariana and Jesus in the other, leaving Alex and Brandon on opposite sides of the table, but still directly across from each other, giving him ample time and maximum efficiently to continue staring like a total creeper. _Super._

"So," Mariana said casually, the first one brave enough to start a conversation. Alex could've hugged her. "Where are you like, _from_?" she asked, picking up a menu.

"New Jersey," Alex said, not being able to help a relieved smile at having the first question directly to her not filled with an expletive or sarcasm.

"That's like pretty close to New York, right?" Mariana asked again.

"Yeah, the states are right next to each other," Alex nodded.

"Have you ever been to New York City?" Mariana asked, her face growing excited, her eyes widening.

"Sure, a few times actually."

"Oh my god, you totally have to take me some day. Preferably during fashion week," she specified.

"What's fashion week?" Jude asked from his place squished against the wall.

"Oh my god, Jude, it's the best thing ever," Mariana explained seriously. "The whole world like gets together and all the major cities have all these awesome fashion shows from the best designers on earth."

"Whoa, cool," Jude said, his eyes widened as well at the same time Brandon's rolled.

"Screw fashion week," Jesus added. "I'm in, but only for the pizza. Is it really as good as everyone says?" he asked Alex.

"Better," Alex nodded.

"Dude," Jesus said, before returning his attention to his menu.

"I'd like to go too," Callie added, "but because of all the landmarks. You could get some really good pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Time Square-"

"Me modeling in front of the Statue of Liberty and Times Square," Mariana interrupted, as she and Callie laughed.

"You're so vain," Callie accused over a giggle.

"What?" Mariana defended. "Those are all perfect spots for senior pictures."

"Mariana, we're sophomores," Jesus reminded her.

"It's never too early," she said, squinting at him.

All the talk of their imaginary trip was interrupted by their waitress arriving at the table. "Sorry about the wait," she apologized.

"It's all right," Brandon assured her, actually meaning it, quickly looking around the table with a softer expression. Everyone was starting to enjoy themselves, and even if he couldn't make himself have fun, at least everyone else was. If his siblings liked her, maybe he didn't quite hate her.

"Are we ready to order?" the waitress asked, pulling out a small notepad and clicking a pen open.

The group nodded a consensus of yeses. "I'll start," Jesus eagerly volunteered. "I'll have a double order of the spaghetti, extra meatballs," he said.

"Simplicity, I like it," Alex said.

"Ew, no, do you even understand how fattening that is?" Mariana replied as Jude ordered his small kid's pizza.

Callie went with the fettuccine and Brandon's choice was lasagna.

"I'll have the half-sized order of the Caesar salad, hold the croutons, no chicken, dressing on the side," Mariana specified, "make sure the dressing is on the side," she reiterated seriously as the waitress shot her a dirty look.

"Well you're not getting a good tip," she said under her breath with an equally dirty expression in response.

At last, only Alex was left. She hadn't even cracked her menu open. She was going to order the same thing as Mariana did, as she felt it might be safest given she was the most open and talkative, but there was no way in hell she was ordering basically lettuce. Fettuccine wasn't her favorite, the kid's pizza would be the size of her pinky finger, and she'd probably hurl and look crazy ordering Jesus' order.

"I think I'll go with the lasagna too," she decided, handing her menu to the waitress. Lasagna was a classic favorite of hers, and as stupid as it probably sounded, maybe, just maybe, their mutual love of red sauce would help her and Brandon bond a little. Or at least, you know, make it not feel like they were rival districts in The Hunger Games or something.

"I love your nose ring," Mariana said as the waitress went to put in their orders.

"Oh," Alex laughed, touching the stud. "Thanks."

"I have my nose pierced too," she informed her.

Callie scoffed in reply, "more like mutilated."

"That's totally unfair!" Mariana said. "I have it pierced, I just went about it untraditionally," she explained.

"Yeah, you did it yourself with a needle and moms went ape," Jesus said, laughing at the memory of his moms' reactions.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that it's pierced," Mariana shot back.

Callie laughed as she took a sip of her water, and Alex managed a small smile.

"You didn't even go to get it done?" she laughed.

"No, my moms would've said no, okay?" Mariana said, laughing at herself at this point. "I took it out since then anyway. It was urgent at the time."

"What urgent situation would've prompted you to punch a hole through your own face?" she laughed as Mariana's face went straight, snapping up to look at Alex with a now serious expression.

_Shit_. Had she gone too far and hit a touchy subject? Mariana and Callie were the major players on her team right now, and losing them would be fatal. She had to start being more careful with what she said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to -" she quickly started to apologize.

"No, you didn't say anything," Mariana rushed to assure her. "It's just," she laughed out her nose, "my mom, well, Stef, used the exact same words as you just did."

"Really? That's a weird coincidence," Alex replied, trying to shrug and laugh it off. But deep down a little part of her savored that. Maybe they had more in common than she'd thought.

"Yeah," Mariana said, "really weird," she said, stirring her iced tea, more reserved now, but still smiling slightly.

The rest of the pre-meal passed by much the same way as pre-ordering did. It was a drastic improvement from the car ride, even though Jude accidentally spilled his drink and Mariana chastised Jesus for a solid ten minutes for asking the waitress if there was any way he could have a side of ketchup with his spaghetti.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a good time as they got their food and starting eating. The meals were delicious, and now that there was conversation to accompany it, it was turning out to be a good time. Well, conversation from everyone except Brandon, that is. He was still acting sullenly, but he grinned at a few of the jokes being told, which Alex thought was better than nothing.

Before long, most of the plates had been cleared and the waitress brought a fairly large bill to the table. Brandon reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet and Alex's heart stopped. She patted her pockets, and swiped her hand about the booth seat, her face blushing bright red. She didn't have any money on her.

She bit her lip, at a loss as to what to do. This was so embarrassing. She'd have to try and borrow money from Brandon or maybe even one of the other kids if they had any. She could try Mariana, Jesus, or Callie, but they were all laughing at some private joke and interrupting would be awkward. Plus, Brandon already had his wallet out. She really didn't want to do it, but she didn't see any better options.

"Uh, Brandon," she asked in almost a whisper. His head shot up at her, his hand still in his wallet.

"Is there any way I could borrow some money?" she asked.

His face became disgusted in an instant. "Money for what? Is that what this is about? You're just using us for our money?"

"What?" Alex asked, confused at his accusation.

"You have the nerve to show up at our house, come to this dinner, and then ask me for money so you can, what, go somewhere else? Buy drugs? What?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, her eyebrows knitted, growing angry and defensive herself. "I meant for dinner."

Brandon's face flushed crimson. "Oh."

"Yeah, excuse me for forgetting my purse but it's been kind of a crazy couple of days, it just slipped my mind. Won't happen again," she said bitterly.

"No, I just, I thought you meant-"

"I know what you thought," Alex spat back, sighing.

The two stared each other down, the other side of the table still oblivious to the icy exchange going on next to them.

"You're not borrowing it," Brandon said with finality.

"Fine, I'll find a way to pay," Alex said venomously.

"No, I mean, you don't have to pay me back," he said, his voice softer now.

"I'm not some charity case," Alex shook her head.

"You're our family though," he said. Alex could tell he didn't really mean the words, his voice was holding back, but at least he had said it. At least he was trying.

"Still, I'll pay you when we get home."

"I'm not going to let you do that," Brandon said. His voice had Stef's rigid, this-isn't-open-for-discussion stubbornness to it. She wasn't going to win.

"Well thank you, very much," Alex nodded in grateful acknowledgment of the gesture.

Brandon nodded back. "Plus, my moms gave me most of this. And Lena would kill me if she found out I made you pay."

"Really?" Alex asked. She'd actually thought over what she was going to say next, but ventured to say it. It was risky, but with Brandon, she didn't really have much to lose. "From what little I've seen, I'd figure Stef's more the killing type."

Brandon smirked. "Yeah, well you've never had Lena give you 'the look.'"

"The look'?"

"It's lethal," Brandon assured her. "It's reserved for serious trouble and it'll make your blood run cold," he said, over-exaggerating, but only a little.

"Damn, Lena sounds like a badass," Alex replied, making Brandon snicker a little, which Alex thought may have been her biggest accomplishment maybe ever.

"It's only matched by my mom's threatening whisper," Brandon warned.

"Whisper? That sounds kind of lame. I think maybe you're just a pussy," Alex egged on a reaction.

Brandon shook his head and blew air out of his mouth. "I'm not. You get on the receiving end of the whisper and then talk to me. I bet you'd cry."

"I bet I wouldn't," Alex laughed.

"Well we'll see. But I mean hopefully you'll never have to experience it."

"Hopefully," Alex agreed.

Brandon looked down at his watch, "we better get going or else we're going to be late and we're all going to experience it," he said, standing up and leading everyone out of the restaurant.

The car ride back home was leaps and bounds better than the one to the restaurant. It was amazing what some breadsticks and talk of New York City could do to change people. The chatter was plentiful, and for the first time in a long time Alex actually felt truly happy. This was nice. They were nice. It was good.

They all moseyed into the house, holding takeout boxes and to-go cups as they entered through the back door into the kitchen.

"Moms! We're home!" Brandon yelled to the house, though it wasn't necessary considering they were sitting at the kitchen table, straight-faced. "Oh, sorry, I didn't think you'd be down here," he froze. "Is something wrong?"

The kids stopped just inside the back door at the interruption, all seeing the stoic expressions on their mothers' faces. Lena tried her hardest to perk her face up.

"Oh, kids, don't take your shoes off!" she said, jumping up from the table, intercepting them.

"What's going on?" Callie asked, confused. It was all going so well. Had something happened with her and Jude?

"Nothing, nothing," Lena reassured them. "We all just need to make a quick run to the grocery store," she said, making a shooing motion to herd them out the back door again.

"What? It's 8 o'clock at night," Mariana said, puzzled.

"And didn't you just go yesterday?" Jude asked.

"I'm in," Jesus said, heading back to the car, the only one not opposed or questioning this plan.

"Well yes, but, you all were complaining about what I bought so we're going again, all of us this time," Lena said ad-libbing. It was the best excuse she could come up with.

"Can't this wait until tomorrow? _America's Next Top Model _is new tonight," Mariana complained.

"Nope, it can't wait, let's go, everyone but Alex."

"Why wouldn't Alex come? She's the-" Jude asked innocently.

"Just go!" Lena said frazzled, resorting to physically shoving them out the door and trying her best to ward off questions as she did so.

Alex stood by the table, the place she'd been tossed in all the commotion. In all the hustle and bustle, the door hadn't latched completely, and Stef stood up, going over to shut it, sealing in the threatening quiet.

"Sit," Stef demanded in a whisper as she practically slammed the door.

Alex immediately did as she was instructed. _Brandon was right._

Stef took a deep breath, her hand still on the doorknob, facing the wood. She tried her very best to compose herself.

After a few moments, she turned to look at Alex. Her voice maintained the eerily quiet, even tone as she spoke.

"Let's talk."

**Oh snap. It's going down. (I'm yelling timber.) But anyway, what did you think? How'd you like the dinner scene? And any thoughts or predictions on how the Alex/Stef conversation is going to go? I think we can all agree it's probably not going to be pretty... Thanks so much for all the reviews. This story is so close to hitting 100 and this is only the 10****th**** chapter which is epic crazy awesomeness. Thanks, people. You rock. **

**Grace, Liz – you homies are the best. **


	11. Chapter 11

"What is there to talk about?" Alex asked, trying to keep her voice calm, although she swallowed hard as she did so.

Stef let out a laugh, though it was obviously void of any humor. "That's what you're going with? Really?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I don't-" she stuttered. She truly didn't know what this was about, though the confusion wasn't out of innocence. There were any number of things she could be referring to, could be angry about. Alex didn't even know where to begin, and she couldn't think of any way that Stef could have figured out about them.

"How about you start off by telling me how old you are," Stef cut her off, pacing her way over closer to where Alex was sitting.

"I told you-"

"Eighteen?" Stef finished for her. "Your driver's license going to agree with you?" she questioned. "And keep in mind before you answer that, I'm a cop, I know what a fake ID looks like."

Alex's gaze dropped to the table in front of her.

"I'll ask you again, is your driver's license going to agree with the fact that you're eighteen? Your _real_ driver's license, that is."

Alex closed her eyes and barely twitched her head to the side.

"I'd like a verbal answer, please," Stef commanded.

Alex cleared her throat. "No. It won't," she admitted, her eyes still boring holes into the table in front of her.

Stef sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. She knew what the answer was going to be. Why would she have asked if she didn't? But for once she wished she was wrong.

"Why?" Stef asked, throwing her hands up. "Why'd you lie?"

Alex shrugged, biting her lip.

"You don't know?" Stef asked with annoyance, to which Alex shook her head in agreement. "You _do _know, Alex," she said, stepping directly in front of where she was sitting.

There was a period of silence, their breathing being the only sounds that could be heard. Stef was giving her a chance to respond. A chance to explain with what had better have been one damn good explanation.

"How old are you?" Stef asked, deciding to continue with the line of questioning after a few moments had passed. If she didn't want to actively participate and cooperate, she would treat it like an interrogation.

"Sixteen," Alex mumbled quietly.

Stef sucked in a breath. _Sixteen_. Same age as Callie and Brandon. But she couldn't let her feelings get the better of her. She needed answers and facts and explanations. She had to put her feelings aside and push. The small percentage that wanted to go soft needed to disappear and let the bigger, no-nonsense, angry part work effectively. It would be best for everyone in the long run.

"And why did you lie about your age?" she asked again.

Alex shook her head again. "I don't know," she said softly.

"Look up," Stef snapped. "I want eye contact," she demanded.

Alex slowly raised her gaze to lock eyes with Stef. The blank determination in the blonde's eyes scared her, and having to raise her chin to her towering stance, her arms crossed and eyebrow raised terrified her. But she did what she did best, and turned that fear into defiance. Resistance. The tears burned right behind her eyes but she transformed the strong emotion into fiery, passionate insolence instead. Her fight or flight responses kicked in, and she'd already used up all her flights for awhile.

"I had to," she said, trying to make her voice steely and hard.

"You _had _to," Stef repeated. Alex's poker face was no match.

"Yup."

"Why? Clubs, cigarettes, gambling, what?"

"No, I was just dying to vote," she snipped sarcastically.

"Drop the attitude," Stef commanded with equal quickness. "This isn't a game. I want answers, and none of that vague, phony 'I had to' act because that's crap."

"You know, you don't actually know the first thing about me, so I'm not really sure you're the best person to make that judgment call," Alex replied, now crossing her arms as well.

"I know that you're a liar."

Alex rolled her eyes. "You don't what you're talking about," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Stef asked more loudly than necessary. "Come on, speak up. You're an adult, remember? You want to be an adult so badly you can take the consequences of your actions like one."

"I said, you don't know what you're talking about," Alex repeated, daring to make eye contact. Her heart was pounding as Stef's eyes squinted. She was going to be sick. She wasn't this brave, but she had to pretend to be or else she'd get hurt even worse. If she didn't deflect from the situation with sharp, empty sass she'd end up over-sharing. And information was the real ammo. Opening yourself up was far more dangerous than talking back.

"What don't I know?"

"Anything. Everything."

"So tell me."

"Why should I?" she raised an eyebrow defiantly.

"What is this about, Alex?" Stef asked impatiently. "What did you hope to gain by coming here and lying to us, huh? What is it that you want? Money? Is that it?"

"God, is it all about money with you people?" Alex asked shortly, her voice rising, and before she knew it she had practically leapt out of her chair, leaving her face-to-face with Stef.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Stef asked, her eyebrows creasing in rage.

"Whatever the hell you want it to mean," Alex said back almost mockingly.

"You need to sit back down," Stef said authoritatively, but with eerie calmness.

Alex, internally shaken and way out of her league, did as she was asked, cowering back into her seat, sinking to recoil from her unyielding demand. "I don't take orders from you," she managed to grumble, still trying to keep some semblance of courage.

Stef's eyes narrowed and the whisper returned once again. "You are way out of line."

"Am I?" she knitted her eyebrows challengingly.

"Yes, you are," she said factually, keeping the low, dangerously even tone. "I am an adult and your older sister-"

"Half sister. And you're really pulling that card?"

"-and I deserve to be treated with some respect," Stef said, choosing to ignore the interruption so she didn't explode.

"Respect has to be earned," Alex fired at her.

"So does trust," Stef shot back.

"Who says I care if you trust me?" she was grasping at straws now. She was fighting a losing battle at this point, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up the nonchalant, snarky façade. As much as she liked the idea of a family, it was no use. People like her weren't meant for families like this. Passivity was her only escape to trapping and hurting herself in the long run. She'd learned this lesson already.

"Who says I asked?"

"What do you want from me? Huh?"

"I want you to give me some answers. Like why you chose to lie to us."

"I didn't graduate, okay?" Alex said. It had slipped before she'd even realized she'd been thinking it. Although, if she was being honest, she knew Stef was relentless. They were going in circles and maybe if she just shared the bare minimum this would all go away. She'd make Lena realize what a mistake she'd made by ever letting her step foot into this house and she could be on her way, back to her old life to forget any of this ever happened - this wonderful nightmare.

Stef cocked her head to the side. That was unexpected. "You told me you were done with school on the way to the motel."

"Yeah, well, I lied. I'm sure you're shocked seeing as that's all you've been harping on," Alex said bitingly.

Stef bit her tongue, literally, in order to contain a harsh response. She was talking, that was something.

"Why didn't you graduate?"

Alex was back to keeping her eyes downcast at her hands on her lap and shrugged.

"Hey," Stef said, grabbing her chin, forcing her to look up. "Eye contact, remember? And a shrug is not an answer."

Alex sighed. "I dropped out after sophomore year."

"Which still doesn't answer my question."

"I didn't feel like I was going anywhere," she said simply.

"Great reason," Stef said sarcastically before she could stop herself.

"I wasn't smart enough, okay? I wasn't…achieving anything. No one cared anyway. I figured my time would be better off doing something else."

"Such as?" Stef asked skeptically.

"Getting a job. It's easier to work full time when you're not in school and I needed money for rent."

"Where was your mom in all of this? She wasn't involved in these decisions?" Stef asked, wondering how a mother could let their child make reckless decisions on the fly like that.

Alex snorted. "Right," she said cynically.

Stef chose to let that go for now, finally taking a seat across from Alex as the tone of conversation was moving towards more casual and less interrogational, though she was by no means any less pissed than when this all began.

"So you quit school to work."

"So I could help Jackson pay rent," Alex nodded.

Stef fought the urge to outwardly cringe. She'd almost forgotten the whole Jackson of it all. "You wanted to move in with him?"

"I didn't really have a choice. Landlords don't rent to under eighteen even if you are emancipated, and you don't get emancipated if you don't have a steady income, so it was the best thing to do to make it all work," Alex explained.

"And you felt like you were ready for all that? Not having your mom around?"

"I kind of did it so I could get away from her, Stef," Alex said factually, communicating with her eyes that there was a lot more to it than that, but that she really couldn't handle talking about it right now. And Stef supposed that was something she could live with. After all, they still had a lot more to discuss.

"Lena's not going to be happy about the school thing. I mean, I'm not either, but Lena's the one you have to worry about," Stef said after a beat.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"I mean, I have to worry about you? I kind of thought this was temporary."

Stef was silent for a few moments, trying to gather everything together, trying to figure out what to say. She'd have to word things carefully, and she'd have to make sure not to say something she'd regret. "Look, uh, this can be as temporary as you want it to be."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, ultimately it's up to you. You have options. I know you're not eighteen but technically, in the eyes of the law, you are an adult. You have the freedom to make your own decisions. Obviously, you can leave now, no one can stop you."

Alex nodded. She was breaking it gently, at least.

"But you don't have to leave either. Of course, I'll have to talk it over with Lena, but I'm sure she'd agree that you are more than welcome to stay here for awhile until you can, you know, get back on your feet. And we would be willing to help you do that."

"Are you serious?" she asked softly.

Stef nodded slowly. "However, if you chose that route there are conditions. You'd be living under my and Lena's roof, and there are going to be ground rules. It might get a little hairy since Callie and Brandon are the same age as you and you're technically independent, but we'll figure it out. I couldn't tell you specifics yet, but you're going to have to get some kind of degree and you'll be working to earn money so you can get your own place."

"I'm not old enough, though."

"There's cosigning for apartments," Stef replied. "And if you can show us and prove that you're capable and can handle it, sometime Lena and I might feel comfortable enough to do that. Don't get me wrong, you choose to stick with us, it's not going to be a free, easy ride. You have a lot of catching up to do in terms of earning trust. We would have the right to establish consequences and boundaries for you. And you're definitely going to have to adjust the attitude you were just sporting," she said lifting an eyebrow.

"Like I said, ultimately this is all up to you and I will not try to sway your opinion one way or the other, but I have to tell you, your decisions lately have not been the best, but maybe some guidance and help could change that."

Alex mulled it over in her head. She didn't want to trap herself, not again, not after everything. She didn't want to trust Stef, but she did. Her offers were tempting and enticing because being alone was exhausting. Freeing, maybe, but tiring. And oh was she tired.

"What are you thinking?" Stef prompted after several moments of silence.

"You really don't mind me staying here?"

"Not if you follow the rules."

"If that's what it takes," Alex replied.

Stef nodded. "All right. Then we'll find a way to make it work. But before that I need you to tell me any other lies you may have told. And it's not going to be in your best interest to keep any of them a secret because they will come out sooner or later. I have my sources."

Alex nodded, almost wanting to laugh. Lies and secrets were two different monsters all together. Lies she could count. Secrets – well those she couldn't even begin to list.

"Those were the main ones."

"Main ones? What about the not-so-main ones?"

Alex bit her lip. "One of them really isn't important."

Stef raised an eyebrow. "I don't care if you think it's the most ridiculous thing in the world, if you lied about what color socks you're wearing, you need to tell me."

The younger girl took a deep breath. "Well, I didn't get here by all buses and trains…"

"Go on."

"I may have hitchhiked a little."

"How much is a little? Not that that matters, it was stupid regardless."

"A little like five states a little?" she bit her lip.

Stef closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands. "You're killing me," she mumbled with a sigh. "Okay, well, you know what; we're going to save that lecture for another day because I'm too exhausted to go through my PowerPoint about the dangers of hitchhiking."

"You have a PowerPoint?" Alex asked in confusion.

"I do. Complete with gruesome pictures of crime scenes and murder cases. Ask Callie if you don't believe me," she said challengingly.

"Oh. Okay, I think I'll take your word for it," Alex said, a bit puzzled but relieved Stef seemed to be slightly less angry than before.

"Is there anything else, lying or secret wise? Tell me now or you're going to regret it," Stef eyed her seriously.

"No," Alex shook her head. "No, I swear, unless the fact that I have a tattoo counts."

"I've already seen your tattoo, genius, which I'm not too pleased about not only because you've mutilated your own body but encouraged my daughter to do the same because of it," Stef replied.

"Wait, I did what?"

"Well thanks to you now my lovely daughter Mariana wants an infinity sign on her ankle. I overheard her telling Callie about it before school this morning."

"An infinity sign?" Alex wrinkled her nose playfully, holding back laughter. "Isn't that like a total cliché?"

"Are you making fun of my daughter?" Stef squinted.

"No, I-"

"I'm kidding," Stef said, cracking a half-smile. "Yes, it is a total cliché. But isn't yours too? I mean, a butterfly, really?"

"I guess you're right," Alex smiled as well. "I was aiming for profound though," she said defensively. "You know, color symbolizing uniqueness, the wings a symbol of freedom and all."

"Ah," Stef answered. She would never understand the appeal of inking your skin with a needle.

"I guess it's kind of stupid though. I was young and dumb," she shrugged.

Stef snickered at the phrasing coming out of the mouth of a sixteen year old. "You're still young and dumb."

"Well at least I'm young," Alex quipped without thinking.

Stef's eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "Hey now," she said, gently shoving her arm. "Rule number one while you live under this roof, you never ever under any circumstances whatsoever call me old," she said, pointing a mock-accusatory finger at her. "Understood?"

Alex nodded, the half-smile returning to her face. "Understood," she agreed.

She felt her shoulders relaxing, and she allowed herself to sink into the chair. She heard the front door open and six pairs of feet come back into the house, or, her _home_, she guessed. For awhile anyway. It wouldn't be forever, that she knew, but even a day in this house was better than anything she'd encountered before.

_And it was better than she deserved too,_ a voice deep down said guiltily.

_Much better than she deserved. _

**What did you think? Stef can be pretty terrifying, aye? How do you think this adjustment is going to work? Think it'll be smooth sailing? Your reviews are amazing, and I hope I continue to receive your absolutely wonderful feedback because it's the best and really is so rewarding. **

**Liz and Grace, thanks for the help. **

**P.S. – how about that season finale? Whoa, plot twists galore. 'twas madness.**


	12. Chapter 12

"No, no, no. You have to add the total of all the groups first before you divide by the one group to get the probability," Lena slid over, checking her work and informing a bored and flustered Alex beside her.

Alex groaned, rubbing her temples. "Why would I have to do that?"

"Because if you don't, then you're not taking all possible outcomes into account," Lena said, tapping her notebook with a pencil for emphasis.

"Lena, I don't understand number six," Jude said, who was sitting on Lena's left.

Lena sighed. "All right, Jude, I'll be there in just a minute," she informed him. "Alex, try and do the next one keeping what I said in mind," she said before scooting her chair over to where Jude was seated, beginning to help him decode long division.

Alex bit the end of her pencil and tried not to cry. They had been working through math problems going on three hours now, and she didn't feel like she was getting any better at them. There was a reason she wasn't in school anymore. She had tried so hard to bite her tongue and calm down, but she was about to snap, and she really didn't want to take her frustration out on Lena. After all, it was herself she was really angry at. She should be grateful to Lena; the woman really had done so much for her.

It had been about a week since Stef had proposed the living arrangement, and Alex had taken her up on the offer. She, Stef, and Lena had all had a conversation figuring out the details of how things were going to be and filled Lena in on what she and Stef had privately discussed while Lena was on her bogus emergency grocery shopping trip. As expected, Lena was visibly upset about her lack of education, and had made it very clear that a condition of her residency would include some type of schooling.

She'd given her a variety of options, one of which was promising to pull some strings and do everything in her power to make sure she could try and get a spot in Anchor Beach with the other kids. Not only did Alex outwardly shudder at the thought of having to go back to high school, but she figured it wasn't really fair to make Lena do all that for her.

The local public school didn't sound the greatest either considering she'd know absolutely no one and it'd be a waste of eight hours that could be spent making money for an apartment. She briefly considered online classes, but didn't want to deal with the fact that online classes cost money, of which she had very little. She wasn't about to ask Stef and Lena for even more help in that department, and she wasn't too keen on taking a financial hit for that either.

They'd all come to the agreement that a GED would be the best way to go. The cost was minimal and there weren't any official classes needed before taking the test. Of course, Alex would still need some help preparing, and Lena had graciously offered to help tutor her at night to help get her ready to pass the test in a few months.

They were now on their fourth day of working problems from the ungodly thick GED prep book Lena had gotten for her, and honestly, Alex wasn't sure she was ever going to understand anything inside of it. Not only was she not great at school to begin with, but being out of it for a little over a year didn't help matters at all.

She flicked her eyes up from the workbook, sneaking a glance at Lena bent over the back of Jude's chair. She couldn't help but smile a little. If there was one good thing to come out of these grueling study sessions, it was spending them with him.

His sweetness radiated from across the table, and seeing him so focused, pencil tightly grasped in his hand with his tongue stuck out in concentration calmed her slightly. She looked down at the problem again, studying it carefully, but still getting nowhere despite Lena's constant reminders and tips.

She picked up her pencil and tried working it out once more, attempting to keep her composure and resist the urge to flip the dining room table. Although not explicitly stated, she figured not throwing furniture was probably implied in the terms and conditions of living here.

"How's it going?" Lena asked after a few minutes, her chair pinballing to the other side of the table where Alex was.

"That depends, is the answer to this question .78?" she replied, looking back as Lena studied the problem.

"I'm afraid not," she squinted her eyes.

"Great," Alex huffed, her shoulders slumped.

"But you're a lot closer than you were last time. Your work is almost entirely correct up until the second-to-last step," she said, trying to cheer her up.

"I'm never going to get this," she said, deflated.

"Don't say that."

Alex leaned back into her chair, resting her arms on top of her head. "I just don't understand why I even have to learn this. When am I ever going to use this?"

"There are plenty of things you need to know this for," Lena assured her.

"Yeah? Like what?" Alex challenged.

"Well," Lena stuttered, but luckily a word in the workbook caught her eye. "Here, look, it says right here on the heading 'Real Life Applications: Counting Marbles,'" she pointed to the problem.

Alex peered over her hand to glance at the example. "Counting marbles?" she asked, unimpressed. "When am I ever going to want to find the probability of marbles?"

Lena sighed. "Alex-" she warned.

"I'm just saying," Alex threw her hands up. "'Real life applications' is a very, _very_ loose term."

"Alex-" Lena started again.

"Fine, fine, I'll shut up and do the totally inapplicable real life scenario," Alex relented, accepting defeat. She had to hand it to her; Lena probably had more patience than all the saints combined. Mother Teresa probably would've screamed between trying to help both her and Jude simultaneously by now.

"Thank you," Lena said with a small laugh at her dramatics. "Do you think you two can work a little on your own while I start dinner?" she asked, standing up and smoothing her skirt.

"Yeah, I'll keep wrestling with Jim and Suzie's jar of marbles," Alex said without a second thought.

Jude, however, looked up hesitantly. "I can try…" he said slowly.

"Well if you get stuck, you can always yell for me, but I think you've got it," Lena reassured him with a smile before exiting the room, leaving only the two of them at the table.

After a few moments of trying and failing miserably to work out the problem, she looked up from the paper to take a breather, seeing Jude looking confused as well.

"You having trouble?" Alex asked.

Jude snapped out of his trance, looking slightly startled at the voice. "Yeah, a little," he answered honestly.

"Same," Alex replied. "I hate math, don't you?"

Jude shrugged. "Sort of. But I mean it can be kind of fun. Lena always tells me to treat it like a puzzle, and sometimes that helps," he replied.

Alex nodded. "That makes sense. I've always just been really stupid at math."

"I bet you aren't," Jude replied immediately. 

Alex laughed. "You want to bet, do you?"

Jude nodded seriously. "You probably just think that you're stupid at it. I used to think that I was stupid at it until Lena started helping me."

Alex grew more serious, smiling softly. "Lena's pretty good at teaching, huh?"

Jude nodded, matching her smile. "Lena's really good at a lot of things."

They sat looking at each other for a minute, thankful for the little bonding moment in the midst of the homework debacles. She figured they should probably get back to work, but she really didn't want to ruin the moment. She glanced at her paper, and decided maybe she could do both.

"Say," she began, "you any good at probabilities?"

Jude crinkled an eyebrow, "what exactly is that?"

"Hm," Alex squinted an eye. "They're kind of like fractions in a way, I guess."

"Oh!" Jude said, his eyes sparkling. "I just got a B+ on my fractions test like a week ago," she said. "I even got the challenge problem right, and it was a word problem. Even Lena said it was really hard when she looked at it."

"No way, that's awesome," Alex said. "You know, I could really use your help with this, you being a pro and all," she said, motioning to the page in front of her. "You help me out and I'll help you?" she proposed.

Jude faltered. "I don't know if I can do what you're doing though…"

"You're not going to be worse at it than me," Alex said.

Jude shrugged. "Okay," he agreed. "Here, I'll walk you through yours first and then you can walk me through mine," he said, taking charge, grabbing her book and going to sit back in his seat.

"Sounds perfect. Narrate what you're doing and I'll listen," Alex said, taking this opportunity to rest her head in her arms on the table, listening to Jude try and work out Jim and Suzie's Great Marble Dilemma.

"Alex?" Lena's voice interrupted Jude's thrilling algebra lesson.

Alex sighed. She'd been caught. She reluctantly lifted her head to meet Lena's eyes. "Yes?" she asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"Why is Jude doing your work?" she asked, her arms crossed.

"He was just helping me," she replied defensively.

"Well that was very sweet, but Jude has his own work to do, and I'm not sure if it's considered helping if he's doing the work and you're taking a nap. Also, Jude's a seventh grader."

"Sorry," Jude bit his lip nervously.

"It's okay, sweetheart," Lena reassured him, prying the book out from under him and pushing across the table towards Alex. "Work," she eyed her seriously, tapping the book and, retaking the seat she had occupied earlier, not trusting she could leave the two alone again without supervision.

"Alex said she was going to help me with my math too," Jude said, trying to improve the situation and cover for Alex.

"Did she?" Lena asked, cocking an eyebrow. As much as she hated the fact that Alex had on some level manipulated her son, her heart couldn't help but melt a bit at the fact the two of them seemed to be warming up to each other. She found it hard to believe Jude would've ever voluntarily attempted a problem he knew was way out of his league had he not taken a liking to Alex and felt comfortable around her.

Alex nodded slowly.

"Well we wouldn't want her to break that promise. Alex, why don't you go show him how long division is done," she said, sitting back and smirking.

"What?" Alex asked in confusion.

"Go help him," Lena said, motioning to Jude.

"Does this mean I'm done for the day?" Alex questioned hopefully, making her way over to Jude.

Lena snickered. "Oh no. You still have ten problems which you can finish after Jude's done," she replied, prompting a wince from Alex.

"All right, Jude," Alex regretfully cracking her knuckles. "Let's do this."

Lena sat back, watching the scene unfold before her. It was nice to see Jude connecting to someone that wasn't Callie. She couldn't help but smile at Alex's gentle teasing and Jude being confident and sure enough of himself to tease her back.

"Was that the last one?" Alex asked after about a half an hour.

"Yeah," Jude said with a smile.

"Sweet," Alex said, sticking out a fist. "This deserves a fist pound," she said, making Jude giggle as he tapped his knuckles with hers.

"All right, Jude, why don't you go wash up and tell your siblings dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. Mom should be home soon," Lena told Jude as he nodded and made his way up the stairs.

"Listen," Lena said, shifting in her chair to be closer to Alex when Jude was out of sight. "I know you were just playing around, but you have to take school seriously," she sternly.

"No, I know," Alex shook her head. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"It's okay," Lena cut her off. "I get that it's frustrating, but it is important and I do expect you to try."

"I know, it won't happen again," she promised.

Lena nodded. "Good. Now come on, let's revisit number ten again," she pressed, directing her attention back to the book.

Alex grabbed her pencil and tried to concentrate, but couldn't even to get a good start on it because of the distracting, gnawing thought in her head. She bit her lip. She felt bad. Lena had been kind enough to help her, and she still wasn't getting it. She was putting effort into it, she really was, but there was nothing to show for it. Maybe she should quit now and save them both the trouble.

"Are you sure you want to keep wasting you time with me?" she asked softly, not taking her eyes off the book.

"What?" Lena asked, fixing her eyes on her.

Alex shrugged. "You probably have far better things you'd rather be doing than trying to teach simple math to a high school dropout," she laughed cynically.

"Hey," Lena said seriously, squeezing her shoulder, silently demanding she meet her eyes. "You're not a waste of time, and I'm not letting you give up. I'm happy to help you. You may not see it yet, but you're making progress, I promise," she reassured her.

Alex nodded, still skeptical, but accepting the answer.

Lena bit her lip "And for the record, you're doing remarkably well with Jude," she added.

"Yeah?" Alex asked, cheering up slightly.

"Oh yeah," Lena nodded. "He's really warmed up to you. It's rare for him to feel comfortable with someone that quickly."

Alex nodded. "He thinks the world of you, you know. He never stopped talking about you once you left the room."

Lena smiled, trying not to cry. "You should've seen his face when you were helping him. Judging by his face, I think it's safe to say he thinks pretty highly of you as well."

Alex smiled a smile that didn't really reach her eyes and looked back down at table.

She couldn't help but feel flattered Jude had taken to her so quickly, but she couldn't help but feel a little guilty as well, like she was lying to him. If he really knew her, he wouldn't be looking at her like that.

He should be looking up to people like Lena, but her?

She'd give anything so he didn't turn out like her.

**How'd you like the Jude/Alex/Lena interaction? Thanks for your excellent feedback and, as always, thanks for reading!**

**Regarding last chapter: a few of you were confused as to why Stef was so angry. It wasn't so much purely because of the age lie, but because of Stef's underlying concerns of what that could imply. She didn't know Alex's intentions as to why she told the lie, which opened up the door for her to worry about her agenda. She knew the quickest (and maybe only) way to get the full story was to slip into cop-mode because at this point she was seeing her as a potential threat, not just a kid. Also, Alex's attitude was not the most respectful, which set her off a bit. I'm sorry if that didn't come across clearly and I apologize if it confused you or you disagreed with it. It made sense to me, but it's definitely possible I didn't convey that as clearly as I thought I did or would have liked to. Again, sorry for any confusion or anger about it, and thanks for sticking around to read this chapter even if you weren't satisfied with the last one. Hopefully I cleared it up a bit, and if I didn't, I hope you can see past that because there's still a long ways to go with this story with a lot more Alex/Stef relationship progression that's a lot less harsh. **

**Liz and Grace, thank you as always.**


	13. Chapter 13

Stef looked up from the newspaper she was reading, and choked on the hot coffee making its way down her throat. "No," she shook her head after she got finished coughing. "Absolutely not."

"What?" Alex asked at the bottom of the stairs, looking confusedly at Stef who was lounging on the couch.

"Um, the outfit. It's not happening," she informed her, looking back down at the paper.

"Why? What's wrong with the outfit? Not cute?" Alex asked, peering down at her attire, pulling at the bottom of her dress.

"Oh no, it's cute. If you're a stripper," Stef said, barely glancing up from her reading material.

"Well I happen to sort of like it," Alex said with a hint of defiance, a little hurt at the comment.

Stef sighed and set her reading glasses and blue coffee mug on the table, sitting up. Apparently this particular morning her 'because-I-said-so attitude' alone wasn't going to cut it and convince Alex there was no way in hell she was leaving the house like that.

"What's wrong with it?" Alex prompted, hands on her hips.

"It's inappropriate," Stef replied, crossing her arms. "It's tight and short and overall much too revealing."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Well what else am I supposed to wear? I was actually going to go job hunting today…"

"You were going to go job hunting in that?" Stef asked in disbelief.

"Well yeah. It's hot enough out and, you know, most bosses are male so this can work to your advantage, trust me. I mean how do you think I got my last job?" she asked laughing, but going straight-faced when she saw Stef wince.

"Please just go change before Lena catches sight of you and has a heart attack, okay? We can't afford the medical bills right now."

"Fine," Alex huffed. "But I'm really not sure you're going to like anything else of mine I put on either. This is the only dressy thing I brought, the rest is jeans and sweats, which I'm sure, would be just _extremely inappropriate_ too," she said with emphasis, mocking Stef.

Stef rolled her eyes, swatting her with the newspaper. "Come on; let's see if we can find you something to borrow. There's four other women in this house, there's bound to be something," she said, rising from the couch.

"Do I really have to change?" Alex complained.

"Yes," Stef replied, raising her eyebrows and guiding her up the stairs. "The only way you're stepping foot out the door in that is if you stepped over my cold, lifeless body first."

"Ew, don't be morbid," Alex crinkled her nose as she reluctantly allowed Stef to push her up the stairs.

"Well then don't argue," Stef said, unsympathetically.

"What are you guys doing?" Mariana asked as she stepped out of the bathroom, running into the two of them. "Whoa, cool dress," she said, complimenting Alex's attire.

"Thanks," Alex nodded, smiling proudly and casting a glance at Stef.

"Can I borrow it sometime?" Mariana asked.

"No!" Stef exclaimed before Alex could reply. "No one is wearing this dress."

"Mom, you have no fashion sense," Mariana rolled her eyes.

Stef squinted at her. "And you're about to have no cell phone. How about that?"

Mariana sighed. "What are you guys doing?" she asked again.

"We are trying to find Alex appropriate job hunting clothes. Do you have anything she could borrow?"

"Borrow?" Mariana scoffed. "You're going to make her _borrow _something? Please tell me you're joking."

"There wasn't actually anything in that last question that was remotely joke-worthy so…" Stef trailed.

"Mom," Mariana groaned. "You can't just _borrow _things for occasions like these. This is one of these situations where you need something perfect to fit your tastes and style or else you won't feel confident. And if you don't feel confident then you won't look confident. And if you don't look confident you won't _be _confident. And if you aren't confident, people can see that and people hiring want employees that ooze confidence," Mariana expertly stated.

"What is that like a tip from _People_ magazine or something?" Alex asked, smirking and raising an eyebrow at her professionalism.

"Actually it's from a _Cosmo_ article, thank you very much," Mariana said with a slight hair flip.

"All right, Mariana, well what do you suppose we do?" Stef interjected.

"Well clearly the girl needs to go shopping."

"Mariana, while I appreciate the detailed, scientifically-proven analysis of the correlations between clothes and confidence, really, I don't mind borrowing something," Alex said, laughing a little at how serious she was getting about attire.

"Alex, no," she pointed a finger at her. "As a fellow woman, I cannot in good conscience allow you to do that," she said sternly.

"Mariana," Alex amusedly threw her head back. "I'm telling you, it's fine. Besides, I wouldn't even know what kind of thing to buy anyway. I'm hopeless at shopping."

Mariana's mouth dropped open in horror. "Um, _hello_," she said motioning to herself with emphasis.

Realizing Mariana's implications, Alex's expression became equally horrified. "Um, hell _no._"

"Language," Stef whispered, softly pinching Alex's elbow, intervening for the first time. She was quite content on watching this scene unfold. It was proving to be an entertaining match.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Mariana pouted.

"Oh will it be?" Alex asked skeptically. "Because if I remember correctly when you guys were trying to figure out an activity to do, everyone voted out the mall with pretty impressive speed and tenacity."

"Oh they're babies," Mariana shooed the comment off. "Please," she folded her hands to beg. "I promise I'm seriously really good at fashion and we could find you a totally kickass outfit."

"Language," Stef whispered again, this time nabbing Mariana's forearm.

"Dude," Alex laughed at Mariana's enthusiasm. "I'm trying to _find_ a job, remember? It's not like I have the money to go on some huge shopping spree," Alex said.

"Moms have money," Mariana said quickly, still overly excited.

Stef gave her a look. "Yeah, and so do _you_, Miss Thing," she crossed her arms, staring at Mariana.

Mariana shot her a look back, albeit a bit nervously. "Mom, please. This is seriously important and we won't spend a lot I swear."

Stef narrowed her eyes, placing a hand on her hip. "Last time you said that you maxed out my credit card."

"Well, you had a low limit," she shrugged.

"It was five hundred dollars!"

Mariana rolled her eyes. "Yes, I remember. You made me return all the clothes I bought including that really cute leopard print jacket with the gold buttons. Ugh, still not over that," she added bitterly.

"Yeah well I'm still not over the fact that you spent five hundred dollars, so."

"Okay," Alex held up her hands, "we're definitely not going to spend five hundred dollars."

"So you're saying you'll come?" Mariana asked, beaming.

"No! That's not what I said. I meant that-"

"Actually, that sounds like a great idea," Stef said, causing Alex to whip her head around and shoot her a wide-eyed, pleading look.

"What?" she asked desperately.

"Yay!" Mariana clapped.

"I just think this would be a good time to get to know each other better. And I think you're right about the outfit confidence thing," Stef said with a grin, much to Alex's dismay. Stef reached into her pocket to retrieve her credit card.

"Oh my god, this is going to be so fun," Mariana said, still smiling as big as humanly possible, reaching for the beloved piece of plastic.

"But," Stef held up a finger, snatching the card out of reach, "there are conditions. You are not to go a penny over one hundred, okay? And do not get anything trampy, this needs to be nice stuff, things you can wear to interviews and walk-ins and things of that nature, all right?"

Mariana nodded eagerly, grabbing the credit card. "Got it. Now just wait one minute while I go change into something cuter."

"You're changing clothes to go shopping for more clothes?" Alex asked in confusion.

"Don't question me," Mariana said, before sauntering into her room.

When she was out of sight, Alex flipped around to meet Stef.

"Why would you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?" she asked, panic in her voice.

"Oh, let's see here," she said, raising her hand to showily count the misdeeds on her fingers. "You lied about your age, you lied about your schooling, you tricked Jude into doing your homework-"

"How do you know about that?" Alex asked, disturbed.

"I know everything," she said passively before continuing. "You hitchhiked halfway across the country, you called me old, shall I go on?"

Alex's head dropped. "No, I guess not."

"Good," Stef smiled smugly. "Then consider this your penance."

"Can't you just like deprive me of food or water board me or something?"

Stef smirked. "Oh don't worry, you won't be alone. I know how misery loves company so I've got someone else to share your burden."

"Who?" Alex asked, wrinkling an eyebrow.

"Callie!" Stef yelled, and soon footsteps were heard thumping up the stairs.

Poor girl. She had no idea what she was walking into. She had no clue she was innocently trotting up the stairs to her death sentence.

"Jesus. Christ. Mariana, this is ridiculous," Alex said struggling to lug an ungodly amount of shopping bags.

"Seriously, can we please sit down for a second?" Callie asked, having a hard time trudging as well.

"No!" Mariana said. "We have one more store to hit up," she said, still as perky as ever. "So stop complaining and get moving," she ordered.

"I feel like we've already been everywhere," Callie said.

"Twice," Alex nodded in agreement.

"Shush," Mariana said, unsympathetically. "Less talk, more walk."

The shopping trip had been successful. Exhausting, but successful. They'd gotten several mix-and-match options for work appropriate attire along with some accessories for miraculously under their hundred dollar budget. It turns out Mariana wasn't only a budding fashionista, but could be one hell of a bargain shopper when she wanted to be.

She had lugged them through countless stores and dressing rooms, them begrudgingly trailing behind her as she shot out orders like she was the drill sergeant of Macy's. And as much as she and Callie were bored to tears and tired after approximately four hours of this, they really had started to bond. Conversation was light and easy and it made Alex happy to know that passersby probably viewed them as a normal group of friends.

"You promise this is the last one?" Callie asked.

"I promise," Mariana swore. "Now keep walking, I don't want to wait in line for a dressing room again," she said, bolting to go scour the sales rack. "Oh! You have to try this," she said, literally flinging a gold belt at Alex. "And try it with…these!" she demanded, throwing a pair of black pants with gold zippered pockets at her. "Go, go, go, I see an open room," she said, shoving Alex and Callie towards the back of the store.

"Are you going to come back with me?" Alex asked, pants and belt in hand.

"Well duh, how else are we going to tell you if you look good or not unless you show us when you try it on? Callie, come on," she said, grabbing Callie's hand as the brunette blew a stray piece of hair out of her face.

Alex was about to push the door open when a noise stopped them all in their tracks.

"Ew, do you hear that?" Alex whispered, stopping Mariana and Callie from going any further into the dressing room.

"Hear what?" Mariana asked quietly.

"Listen," Alex said, sticking her ear out closer to an occupied room. "Some couple is totally sucking face in one of the stalls. And they're like whispering to each other."

"Ew, that's disgusting," Callie said, laughing and making a gagging noise.

"That's classy," Alex said sarcastically, giggling as well.

"That's Chase," Mariana said, quiet and serious, which made Callie's face go straight as well.

"Are you sure?" Callie asked her, suddenly concerned.

Mariana nodded.

"Who's Chase?" Alex asked, wrinkling an eyebrow.

Marina rolled her eyes. "Just some douche that goes to our school. I used to like him, but he's a total dick."

"What'd he do?" Alex asked curiously.

Mariana sighed. "I didn't want to have sex with him after I put my panties in his pocket and he and all of his friends made fun of me," she rolled her eyes.

Alex's faced remained neutral and serious for a moment before she couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out a laughing.

"It's not funny," Mariana said, slapping her arm.

"No, it's not," Alex said, trying to straighten her face out, covering her mouth with her hands. "I'm sorry. Just…really? Underwear? In his _pocket?_"

Mariana stood there with her arms crossed. "Are you done?" she asked impatiently.

"Yes," Alex said, finally regaining control. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "So this guy sucked? Like he's horrible?"

"Yes. The only person more horrible is the girl he's probably hooking up with aka my ex-best friend Kelsey."

"Hm," Callie interrupted, "I don't know. Talya's pretty horrible."

"Oh that's true," Mariana nodded in agreement. "Well, anyway, to answer your question, yes, he sucks. They both have epic proportions of suck."

Alex nodded. "All right. Give me a minute, would you? Hold these," she said, handing her outfit option to Mariana. "You guys go somewhere and hide but make sure you still have a decent view of this spot, okay?" Alex proposed.

Callie and Mariana exchanged a look, settling on a shrug and going to duck behind a rack of clothing as Alex casually made her way to one of the check outs.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked as she arrived at the desk.

"May I help you?" a stern-looking woman with a sleek, grey bun and square, dark-rimmed glasses perched on the edge of her nose asked.

_Perfect._

"Uh, yeah. See," she laughed, "funny story. I actually somehow managed to lock myself out of one of the dressing rooms and my purse was in it. Do you have the keys to open it or something? Sorry, I don't know where my brain is today," she said, smiling and tapping her brain.

"Just a moment, young lady," the lady said, straight-faced. "You know you really ought to be more careful," she chastised in a stuck-up tone. "Now then, show me which room it is," she said, following Alex back.

"It's the one right here," she said, though the lady was no longer paying any attention to her. Instead, her face was turning red and she had an indignant look on her face.

"What on earth?" she asked, her eyes growing wide. "What is going on in there?" she barked, the door flying open to reveal a very disheveled pair of teens, who Alex took to be Kelsey and Chase.

"We were just-" the girl stuttered, her hair mussed and lipstick smudged and strewn across her face.

"This absolutely will not do!" the lady yelled shrilly. "I will not have hooligans in this store! This is against company and mall policy and I have no choice but to report these shenanigans to mall security! Come along now, we will have our mall police force deal with you!" she said, grabbing them by their arms and pulling their dragging feet, pleads, and excuses across the store.

Alex spied Mariana and Callie behind the rack and made her way back over to them. They were both in a fit of laughter, tears actually running down Mariana's face.

"That. Was. Awesome," Callie said.

"Seriously. That was amazing," Mariana agreed.

They stared at each other for a moment before Mariana took the plunge, throwing her arms around Alex.

"Thank you for that," she said sincerely.

"You're welcome," Alex replied, awkwardly placing her arms around Mariana as well. Hugs didn't come naturally to her, and she'd never been great at physical contact. Closeness was not usually her friend.

"I love you," Mariana said, and a few tears escaped Alex's eyes as well, but not of laughter.

Mostly of joy and contentment.

But deep down of fear as well.

**Little bit of a lighter, more fun chapter to break up all the drama. (But don't worry. That will be returning soon enough. *****insert smirking emoji*****) What are your thoughts on the mall expedition? And any guesses on what could happen next? Thanks for all your feedback and reviews! It means a lot. Unfortunately, I won't be able to update again until around Monday or Tuesday, so hopefully this chapter can tide you over until then. As always, thanks for reading!**

**Liz, thanks for beta-ing. ****And Grace, thanks for doing whatever it is that you do. **


	14. Chapter 14

"Guess who," Alex said, walking through the front door with an extra spring in her step.

"Someone who's late for dinner?" Stef's voice called back.

"True, but I was kind of looking for a different answer," she replied, now making her way through the living room.

"Alex?" Jude guessed.

"Also right, but again, kind of looking for another answer here," Alex said, now outside the kitchen where everyone was gathered around the table, eating helpings of salad and portions of grilled chicken.

"I don't know, just tell us," Jesus said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of food.

Alex stepped into the kitchen, making her grand entrance and smiling. "You, my friends, are looking at the newest employee of Anchor Beach's finest diner establishment."

"You got a job?" Callie asked.

"I got a job," Alex confirmed, still not able to wipe the smile off her face. For once it actually felt like she was doing something right, and from the expressions of those at the table, it looked like the general consensus was that other people felt like she was doing something right too.

"Honey, that's wonderful," Lena said, motioning to the empty chair beside her. "Here, sit down, tell us more," she said, pulling it out and patting the seat.

"Well, what do you want know?" she asked, happily taking the seat Lena offered.

"Do we get free food?" Jesus asked seriously, looking up from his plate for the first time since he'd sat down.

Alex laughed. "I don't know, I'll have to ask the manager. But a discount probably? I mean I'd assume," she shrugged.

"Sweet, works for me," he said with a head-nod, returning his attention to his dinner.

"What's the dress code like?" Mariana asked.

"There's a uniform."

"Oh god, is it bad?" Mariana asked, placing a hand on her chest and closing her eyes, bracing for the impact.

Alex sucked a breath in through her teeth. "There's a skirt and apron involved."

Mariana slit one eye open. "That has the potential to not be completely horrible…go on…"

"It's got ruffles. A lot of ruffles," Alex admitted.

"No!" Mariana replied, her eyes shooting open. "Ugh, why?"

"It's like an on-the-beach diner thing; they want it to be quaint and festive. It fits the sailing theme."

"You're going to look like a total dork," Mariana said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey," Lena chastised.

"I know, I'm going to look completely stupid," she agreed without offense. "But it's a job. Plus, you can help me accessorize so I can keep the idiocy to a minimum."

Mariana considered this for a moment before nodding slowly. "I guess I could do that."

"Good. Next question?"

"Hours?" Stef asked.

"Shitty," Alex replied, deadpan.

"What about pay?" Lena inquired.

"Even shittier."

"Keep it up and your entire first paycheck is going in the swear jar," Stef admonished, giving her a look at her below-satisfactory answers.

"We have a swear jar?" Brandon piped up.

Stef walked over to the cabinet, grabbing an empty canning jar and plopping it onto the counter. "We do now. Dollar a piece."

"A whole dollar? That's hella harsh," Mariana commented.

"Really?" Stef asked, not amused, while the rest of the table stifled a laugh. "Hand it over," she demanded, sticking out her palm.

Mariana smirked, pulling a dollar bill from her pocket. "Totally worth it."

"What happens when the jar's full? Which by the looks of it might happen tonight," Callie asked cheekily.

"Then we'll donate it," Stef replied, placing the jar on the counter and retaking her seat.

"To where?" Jude asked innocently.

"To you, Jude," Lena said, placing her hand over his. "Because you're the only child we actually like."

"Whoa, that's hella rude," Brandon said, already removing his wallet and handing Stef a crumpled bill. "Oh shoot, the smallest I have is a five."

"That's hella too bad," Callie said. "There, you can pay for me too. Now you're only three dollars over," Callie smirked.

"You are all making a mockery of the swear jar, and I command you to stop," Stef said with faux-seriousness, crossing her arms.

"Damn, we're sorry," Alex said, prompting a look from Stef and her hand shooting towards her to collect reparation.

"Brandon's got me covered on this one. Right Brandon? All right, two more swears and your full five dollars is used up," Alex said. "Who's gonna take it?"

"No one is going to take it!" Lena exclaimed, causing the table to go silent. "No one is going to use it unless you want the fine to go up to ten dollar a pop. How about that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Anybody want to say anything now?" she asked, pursing her lips, daring anyone to accept the challenge.

Stef cleared her throat. "Well," she said solemnly, "I guess that ends this installment of Foster Dinner Theatre. Everybody finished? Yes? Okay good, plates in the sink. Alex, why don't you hang back, help me do the dishes," she said seriously, taking charge. "The dishes are hella dirty," she said, straight-faced, stifling a laugh while the rest of the table couldn't contain theirs.

Lena's eyes shot towards her wife, whose mouth was threatening to quiver into a smile. Lena sighed and simply placed a hand on Jude's shoulder.

"They keep it up at this rate and you're going to have enough to pay for college by the end of the month."

"So tell me, what are the hours and the pay? Preferably in more than one expletive," Stef asked, turning on the sink and picking up a plate after the kitchen had cleared out.

"I'll probably work mostly morning shifts, four or five days a week for about seven to eight hours at a time."

"Hey, that's not bad. What's the pay?"

"Minimum. Bare minimum. Lowest legal wage."

"Ouch," Stef replied, rinsing off a fork. "Oh, I remember those days," Stef said, chuckling a little.

Alex laughed with her, "and the early shift starts at five," she said, a good-natured pained look on her face.

"Oh, even more ouch," Stef replied, throwing her head back.

"But it's a job," Alex pointed out.

"It is," Stef agreed. "And Lena and I are proud of you for it. It shows some real responsibility and maturity and those are two big steps to gaining our trust."

Alex smiled, towel-drying a recently rinsed cup. "Thanks."

The two were taken over by a silence, though unlike most times regarding the couple, it wasn't awkward. It felt almost…normal, the relationship having gotten to the point of doing mundane household chores side-by-side without a lot of tension. Alex had grown fond of the banter-like relationship that had been building up, and so she didn't want to keep it silent. She was finally starting to feel a little comfortable, like she could get used to this, so she made the decision to test the waters a bit. To open herself up just the tiniest bit by offering some information that wasn't being pried out of her.

"You remember that story about the tattoo I told you?" she asked. "Symbol of freedom and uniqueness, all that shit?"

"For the hundredth time, watch your mouth, but yes," Stef said with half-hearted reprimand.

"I didn't lie to you," Alex replied defensively, playfully holding up her hand. "Not really, at least. It is a symbol, just of something else," she said mysteriously.

"What do you mean?" Stef asked casually, intrigued.

"Irony, I guess," she shrugged, momentarily pausing mid-wash, trying to figure out what to say. "I got the tattoo to cover up a scar," she said, going back to washing.

However, this revelation had an adverse effect on Stef, who now stopped her rinsing. "I'm listening," she directed her full attention to Alex.

"Wait, what?" she asked in confusion, looking up at Stef, who was staring at her.

"I said I'm listening."

"Listening to what?" she questioned.

"The story," Stef said with a single nod.

"What story? That was the story." Alex responded, growing a little panicked, but trying to cover it by intensively gazing at the sink instead.

"How'd you get the scar?" she tilted her head, not completely oblivious to Alex's nerves, but attempting to remain conversational.

"That's not part of the story," she said quickly, breathing a laugh to try and keep the mood joking and casual, hoping that way Stef would let it go.

"Humor me," she pried, squinting.

"Okay, I, uh, cut it on a piece of glass," she shrugged, frantically drying a plate.

"What, you just play with glass shards in your spare time?" she tried to keep it light, as not to overwhelm her, though the nagging feeling in her stomach forced her to continue with questions instead of letting the topic go.

"Not frequently, no," she laughed, but was holding back tears. It was either laugh or cry and she could not get hysterical. This was not supposed to go this far. She was not supposed to end up here.

"Then what?"

"It was from a broken bottle."

"How the hell did you cut yourself on a broken bottle?" Stef asked. And there it was: the straw that finally broke the camel's back. Alex grew silent at the question, looking down at the water-filled sink, her eyes fixated on the soapy suds.

"Alex?" she repeated more softly, but still with authority. "How'd you get the cut?" She tipped her head so that it would land in front of Alex's gaze, forcing her to at least acknowledge her.

"Fighting with my mom," she admitted quietly, looking down at her hands.

"So _you _didn't cut yourself on it," she stated, standing up straighter, her back stiffening. Her jaw was clenched, her fists were tightened. She was pissed.

"I guess not technically, but I did break a rule. She was just mad. It was an accident," Alex shook her head defensively.

"What rule?" Stef crossed her arms.

"I don't even remember. I mouthed off or something and she got angry and she just happened to be drinking at the time. I don't know, one minute she was holding the bottle and the next minute she wasn't, all right?" Alex shrugged, picking up a plate.

"Because it was coming towards you?" she asked, adopting a softer tone.

"I don't want to talk about this, okay?" Alex responded, trying to sound firm, though her cracking voice betrayed her as she harshly dropped the plate back in the sink.

"Honey," Stef said gently, reaching out to rub her arm.

"I'm serious," Alex said, ripping her arm away. "Can you please just drop it?"

Stef stood there, too shocked at the defensiveness and reaction to reach out or speak up again.

"I shouldn't have even brought it up," Alex said, sloppily swiping her arm across her face, wiping her running nose and eyes on her sleeve.

Stef finally picked up a bowl, her gaze not leaving Alex's. "You can always bring things up."

"Well not if I'm going to be interrogated about them," she snapped, vigorously scrubbing another plate.

After a few moments of silent washing, Stef spoke up to apologize. "I'm sorry I pushed you."

"It's fine," she answered quickly, though her tone suggested it was anything but fine, as did her rigid posture.

"Can I just say one thing?" Stef ventured to ask.

Alex cast her a harsh glare. She wasn't in the mood for any lectures or talking.

"Just one second is all I ask," Stef put her hands up in defense. "You don't even have to talk, just listen."

"Fine, shoot," Alex said dully.

"It's a fact of life that you're going to get hurt," she began. "Some way, some how, no one makes it out of life unscathed. And sometimes you screw up, and that's the reason why you get hurt. It's gonna happen. There are times when you're just going to really mess up and then learn from your mistakes and move on. We can agree on that, yes?" Stef asked, trying to keep Alex engaged in the conversation.

"Yeah," she nodded, her voice passive. Her mind was elsewhere, and she didn't need another lecture about responsibility right now.

"But you know what? Sometimes other people hurt you, and it's not your fault at all. Sometimes it's their fault and they take their problems out on you, and it's not fair, but they do it. Because those people, they want to make you feel like it's your fault, because it makes them feel better about themselves," Stef said softly. Alex was listening more intently now, a reaction being drawn out of her. She was biting down on her lip and sniffling every so often, avoiding Stef's gaze, her eyes darting around the room.

"But you shouldn't let them convince you, because by accepting blame where blame doesn't belong helps them win. That guilt they make you feel gives them power over you. And that way they can keep hurting you far after the scar is covered and the bruises are faded," she said, causing Alex to choke back a whimper. "Does that make sense?" she asked quietly.

Alex nodded, quickly wiping a second, heavier round of tears away. She cleared her throat, but only spoke when she was sure her voice wouldn't betray her. "Look, I have stuff I have to do so…"

"Go do your stuff," Stef replied, holding back a sigh.

She didn't want to let her leave. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around her and whisper comforting words, but she knew that would do more harm than good. So instead she compromised with herself, simply squeezing her shoulder as she left the room and walked up stairs, the gesture bringing on a whole new wave of tears.

Tears she'd only cry in the painful safety of loneliness.

**Some laughter, some tears, and some swearing. How did you like this chapter? Are you enjoying the blossoming relationship between Stef and Alex? They've come pretty far, but they still have quite a ways to go, don't you think? And do you think it will continue to grow with smooth sailing or face some setbacks? Let me know what you thought! I always love and appreciate any and all of your feedback.**

**Thanks Liz and Grace. You're the bombs. **


	15. Chapter 15

"Mariana, no," Stef said sternly, crossing her arms.

"What?" the girl asked defensively, her hands up.

"You can't do that. You know better than that. I raised you better than that," she replied with disappointment, not backing down.

"Mom, you're overreacting," Mariana crossed her arms as well with a huff. "Plus, I haven't even done anything wrong."

"Haven't done anything wrong?" Stef laughed without humor, gesturing at the table in front of her. "You're being completely disrespectful – mocking rules put into place for everyone's sake. This is serious."

"I hardly think this is something that would be considered serious, Stef," Lena jumped in, putting her hands on her wife's shoulder.

"Whose side are you on, Lena?" Stef whipped around to give Lena a look, her expression as if she'd been slapped in the face.

"Mine, because she knows I'm right," Mariana shot back.

"YOLO is not an appropriate Scrabble word!" Stef exclaimed, standing up from her chair. "I know that, you know that, and Mariana knows that too," she said, squinting menacingly and pointing an accusatory finger at the girl across the table.

"It's just a game, sweetheart," Lena chuckled at the blonde's dramatics. Though she knew she was competitive, it was obvious Stef was putting on a more theatrical performance than usual to provoke some laughter.

Lena didn't know what had taken place in the kitchen while she and Alex had been doing the dishes, but she knew something had happened. She had heard Alex rushing up the stairs and into the bathroom, and while she'd wanted to knock on the door and see what was the matter, Stef had discouraged it, telling her to give her some space and that they'd talk later when they weren't so prone to eavesdropping ears. She'd agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly, but suggested they bring out the board games, her signature idea when someone needed a little cheering up. It'd started when the kids were younger, but game nights were slowly making a comeback, especially since Callie and Jude had arrived.

"It is not _just a game_, Lena. Not anymore. This is war now," Stef said, engaging in a playful stare down with Mariana.

"You know, I'm going to have to agree with mom on this one," Brandon spoke up. "YOLO isn't a word, technically it's an acronym."

"Not to mention a stupid acronym," Jesus added.

"Well it's technically correct. I mean, you do only live once," Callie pointed out.

"Unless you're Jesus Christ," Jesus pointed out the flaw.

"Or Harry Potter," Jude said, "he resurrected too."

"Ugh, we should've just played Monopoly," Stef groaned.

"You're only saying that because you always win Monopoly," Callie smirked.

"Exactly," Stef grinned, gently kicking her under the table.

"No way, Connect Four is so much better," Jesus challenged.

"Only two people can play Connect Four, genius," Mariana rolled her eyes.

"Well we have two boards, we could've had a tournament," Jesus replied, shoving her shoulder.

"All right, that's enough," Lena held up a hand, effectively ending the good-natured chaos that was probably about to turn not-so-good-natured knowing how quickly Mariana and Jesus' tiffs could escalate. "Let's take a vote. Should we allow YOLO, yay or nay?"

"Nay," Stef said without hesitation, causing most of the table to laugh at her anxiousness and Mariana to jokingly shake her head in betrayal.

"Okay, Brandon, you say no too?" Lena clarified.

"It's a no from me."

"Thanks, Simon Cowell," Mariana spat.

"Shh, no talking. You're not allowed to unfairly influence the voting pool," Stef shushed her.

"I can't even campaign for my cause?"

"No."

"Jude, what's your vote?" Lena asked.

"I'll allow it," Jude said precociously, folding his hands on the table, looking like a judge.

"Judicorn, you're my favorite," Mariana smiled sweetly, rubbing his hand.

"Callie?" Lena questioned.

Callie sighed, mulling it over. "I guess I'll say yes, just because I admire your tenacity."

"Score," Mariana pumped her first in the air.

"Jesus?"

"Absolutely freaking not," he shook his head.

"There we go. That's my rational son," Stef said with pride.

"I got your back, mom," Jesus nodded in solidarity, sticking his knuckles out to fist-bump Stef.

"All right, so we have two that say yes and three that say no. I'll say yes just to make things interesting," Lena said, raising her eyebrows mischievously. "Okay Alex," Lena said, directing her attention to the girl sitting at the end of the table, "it's all up to you."

"Come on Alex, you know what to do," Mariana said, nodding.

"Alex, don't listen to her," Stef shook her head, "I trust you to make the right decision."

"What's it going to be, Alex?" Lena asked, her smile fading once she didn't respond, a far-off look in her eyes. "Alex?" she tried again, getting no response.

"Alex," Jude tried, lightly tapping her on the arm. It was effective in snapping her out of her daze, but it also caused her to flinch slightly.

"Sorry," she apologized, shaking her head and blinking. "What were you saying?" she asked, trying to gather herself and stay focused on the current situation, something she'd been struggling with since she'd been practically dragged down the stairs and forced to participate in Foster Family Game Night.

It was sweet and cheesy and something she would've rolled her eyes and made sarcastic comments about while secretly enjoying it had it been any other night. But her earlier conversation with Stef had shaken her, and she was distracted, plagued by the memories and confusions she'd tried to hard to suppress and get away from. And she'd been doing a pretty good job of it until Stef had coaxed up what she'd trained herself to repress.

"Yes or no?" Mariana replied impatiently.

"Yes or no what?" Alex asked slowly, causing Mariana to sigh.

"Did you seriously just miss that entire conversation?" she asked. "Ugh, you know what, screw it. You win; I won't use YOLO, even though it is a viable word and would've gotten me like 76 points."

"She relents!" Jesus exclaimed with a smile.

"Only because I'm trying to save time," Mariana rolled her eyes.

"Somebody's a sore loser," Brandon taunted.

"Coming from you, the king of bitch fits when things don't go your way," Mariana shot him a dirty look.

"Hey! That's enough," Stef chastised.

"You know, I think we should call it a night," Lena added, starting to scoop the wooden letters into the bag, glancing at Alex, who once again had a lost, glazed over look on her face. She then looked at Stef, and they communicated the same sentiments. Something was definitely wrong.

"We're not going to finish the game?" Jude asked. "I had a really good word too," he said sounding disappointed, sporting a pouty expression.

"Maybe you'll get an even better one next time, buddy," Callie responded, starting to usher him out of his seat.

"Maybe," Jude shrugged, allowing her to lead him upstairs, albeit a bit reluctantly. Unlike the others, Callie wasn't completely oblivious to what was going on, and she figured she could do her part to help speed up the process Stef and Lena were trying to conduct.

Lena shot her a grateful look before ordering the others up the stairs as well. "It's getting late, people, and I'd suggest at least a few of you shower tonight so none of us have to bathe in Antarctica tomorrow morning," she said, the comment working like a charm.

"Oh! I call dibs!" Mariana raised a hand, almost knocking over her chair as she jumped out of her seat.

"What? No way! I had wrestling practice, let me go first," Jesus said, practically sprinting up the stairs.

"Shouldn't I get to go first? I am the oldest, doesn't that count for anything?" Brandon asked.

"No," Jesus and Mariana replied simultaneously.

"You're not a girl."

"Or an athlete."

The bickering continued, echoing as they all went up the stairs, causing Stef to roll her eyes. Although at least if they had to argue, they were doing so on the second story of the house.

"We could've finished the game," Alex said quietly, her gaze fixated on the wall across from her.

"You didn't really look like you were up for it, sweetheart," Lena replied. "You could've said something if you weren't, we would've understood."

"No, I'm fine. I mean, who doesn't like board games, right?" she said halfheartedly, not even attempting to smile at the comment.

Lena breathed out a laugh for her benefit. "True, board games are a crowd-pleaser, but sometimes you're just not up for it, and that's okay-"

"I know. But I was up for it," Alex said with a half-smile, daringly meeting her eyes to try and convince them it was true, trying to make it seem like she was confident in saying it. It had the opposite effect on Lena, though, when she met her eyes. It was obvious the bravery was masking the sadness and exhaustion her actions were pointing to.

"I don't know what happened; I guess I just spaced out."

"Alex-" Lena started.

"Sometimes that happens when I'm tired. Today's been a long day, you know, what with the job hunting and all. It's not for the faint of heart, I'll tell you that much," she rambled.

"Alex-" Lena tried again, once again getting cut off.

"Once I get some sleep I'll be fine, but right now I can barely keep my eyes open," she said exaggerating a yawn. "In fact, if you don't mind, I think I'll get ready for bed now. It's getting late."

"I don't think-" Lena began to protest.

"Of course," Stef nodded, prompting a quizzical look from Lena. "You're right, it's late. I think we could all use some sleep," she said, rising out of her seat.

Lena hesitantly pushed her chair back as well, uncertainly taking Stef's lead.

"Goodnight," Alex said, relieved. Maybe if she could just get a few hours alone then she could push all the thoughts back again. Maybe if no one pried anymore she could lock them squarely away. She could rebuild the little piece of the wall that had been worn down.

"Goodnight," Lena said, still obviously puzzled, but walking up the stairs.

"Goodnight," Stef said, locking eyes with Alex, holding her gaze for a moment before following Lena up the stairs and leaving Alex alone as she always was.

**How did you like this chapter? And more importantly, do you think YOLO is a permissible Scrabble word? Are you Team Stef or Team Mariana on that one? Fun fact: this is my first ever update as an adult as my eighteenth birthday was yesterday. I feel pretty special. Thanks for all your great feedback! I always love hearing from you. **

**Thank you Liz and Grace for all the help. **


	16. Chapter 16

Her eyes snapped open and her wrist throbbed as she frantically looked around at her surroundings. It came flooding back as it always did.

She had always been the nightmare type. Ever since she was little. Monsters and witches plagued her dreams as far back as she could remember.

As she got older, her subconscious used her fears as ammunition. The imaginary monsters under her bed morphed into real ones; taking on familiar characteristics she encountered everyday. Furry monsters with sharp teeth turned into human monsters with sharp bottles. Witches with magic potions that turned people into animals became men with magic potions that turned her mom into another creature too.

Alex struggled to catch her breath, clutching her wrist. Suddenly the warm blankets were hot as lava, not comforting, but burning her, suffocating her. She practically leapt off the pull-out and sprinted to the kitchen, thankful she could now locate the cups with ease.

She drank a glass of water. And another. But it wasn't helping. Nothing was helping. She couldn't shake the dream – the nightmare replaying over and over even though she was awake and fully conscious. _The yelling. The bottle. The impact. The cold look. The fear._ The shock of it was making her physically ill, and if she didn't get some fresh air she swore she was going to pass out.

She opened the back door as quietly, yet quickly as she could. She prayed it wouldn't squeak. She still felt like she was going to fall over. She grabbed the edge of the patio table, and only then did she realize how much she was shaking. Alex tried to take deep breaths, hell, she tried to catch her breath, but she wasn't making much progress. She was shivering helplessly; almost as pathetic as she was that night.

Nights were the worst. She felt like it was unfair that you had to lose control in order to live. That's what sleep was – forcing you to give up control and have some unknown power force you to recognize and relive things that you really didn't want to think about.

The tears cascaded down her cheeks, burning her face. She didn't trust herself to remove her hands from the table, though, so she reluctantly let them slide, making their scornful paths. Her breath was hitching, the soft tears turning into sobs, and she was glad she left the house when she did. Had she not, she probably would've woken someone up with the noise.

She had thought she was all cried out for awhile. She thought that once she had fallen asleep she would wake up and she'd feel okay again. That she'd feel normal and forget that these demons had come out of their cage in the first place. She had to get this under control. She couldn't live like this, and the fact that one had escaped was dangerous. Her heart sunk as she realized how easily this one had upset her, and how many more could just as simply resurface as well. She couldn't let that happen.

Her heart dropped even further into her chest when she heard the door open, and she was afraid to turn around. Whoever it was wasn't going to be happy about her being out here, and she wasn't sure she could handle whatever they were going to say. She wasn't sure what she was going to say either. Her mind wasn't exactly focused on a viable excuse at the moment.

"I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be out here," she apologized before the door had even shut all the way. She willed the tears to stop.

There was no reply, just footsteps making their way closer and closer to her. She braced herself for an arm grab or a shoulder snatch, but kept her wrist firmly in front of her. If they touched her wrist right now she'd lose it. It was still tender from the dream.

"Let's go inside and sit down," Stef's voice whispered, gently rubbing her back and guiding her towards the door.

Alex reluctantly allowed her to lead her inside. It's not like she had a choice. She was in no condition to fight her on it. She couldn't even stop trembling, let alone fight.

Stef couldn't be happy with her. She'd left the house without permission at three in the morning. It didn't exactly fit within the guidelines and parameters of her being here and it definitely didn't earn her any trust points.

Stef sat her down on the edge of the folded-out couch and followed suit by sitting as well. Although Alex wished she would just leave altogether, she was glad she was at least keeping a somewhat safe distance away. She wasn't trying to touch her or anything.

Stef stayed silent, just casually sitting by her as if watching television. She wanted to ask and pry and hug the girl with the tear-stained face, but she couldn't. She couldn't let herself be a hypocrite because she was the same way. She remembered what she'd told Lena about people like her and Callie needing time to process things differently. She had to be an advocate for the slow processing, and Alex clearly needed the time to process.

"How'd you know I was out there?" Alex asked. Her voice still wasn't cooperating. Even on a routine question like that it sounded shaky and weak. She hated it.

"I've trained myself to wake up whenever I hear a door, window, or the fridge open in the middle of the night. I have six teenagers living here, I can't have you kids sneaking out or stealing my food," she said, tacking on a joke to try and calm the fragile girl beside her.

Alex looked down at her hands guiltily, far too upset to register or acknowledge her weak attempt at humor. "I wasn't sneaking out."

"I know that," Stef reassured her, nodding. "What were you doing?" she asked, although given the circumstances, she had a pretty good idea.

"Just had a bad dream. Needed some air. I really don't want to talk about it," she said, trying to sound firm, though she was betrayed by her shaking voice.

"Okay," Stef replied simply. "We don't have to talk about it. Let's talk about something else then, yes?"

Alex eyed her suspiciously. She couldn't believe she was getting off that easily after everything. She nodded slowly though, not about to shoot a gift horse in the mouth.

"You start work tomorrow, right?" Stef asked casually, her voice soft.

"Day after tomorrow," Alex corrected.

"Oh that's right. You nervous?"

Alex shrugged. "A little I guess, but I've worked as a waitress before so I think I know what to expect."

"True, I'm sure you'll be fine. I imagine most of them are pretty similar. And it's a little café, correct?"

"Yeah," she replied, still staring down at her fidgeting hands.

"That should be fun. What do they serve, like diner food? Burgers and coffee and stuff?" Stef asked, continuing to move the flow of easy conversation.

"I think so. I didn't look too closely at the menu."

"Sure, that's understandable. I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly."

"I hope so," Alex said. Her eyes were still fairly distant, but Stef could see her shoulders had relaxed slightly.

"How's studying with Lena going?" she changed the subject, pleased the distraction was effectively calming the younger girl.

"It's okay," she said, blinking out of her spaced-out daze and wiping at her eyes. Her heartbeat was returning to normal and the tears had stopped flowing as heavily.

"Yeah? Well Lena sure thinks it's going better than just 'okay.'"

Alex sniffled and turned to face her. "Really?"

Stef smiled and nodded. "She says you're a really fast learner. She also seems to think that she's a pretty great teacher because of it, so I'm going to need you to stop being so great before her ego gets too big," she said with mock seriousness.

Alex breathed out a laugh. "Trust me, I'm not that great."

"Yeah well you're not so bad either," Stef replied confidently.

Alex bit her tongue, deciding taking the small compliment would be easier than listing off all the reasons she was wrong. "If you say so," she said simply after a beat.

"I do say so," Stef swiftly replied, not even thinking about it.

Alex breathed deeply. She was beginning to grow tired again. She'd forgotten how tired she really was, the side-effects of the dream had kept her wide awake. Stef yawned as well, as exhausted as Alex, though it was the adrenaline that had kept her up. Hearing that door open had jolted her awake. She vowed she was never going to let a door go unheard in the middle of the night again. Not after everything that had happened.

"I'm sorry about all this," Alex said, suddenly embarrassed at the position she'd put herself in and a bit guilty at inconveniencing Stef.

"You don't have to apologize," Stef replied firmly.

"I do. I mean, I left the house which I shouldn't have done-"

"Alex-"

"-and I woke you up which you shouldn't have had to do-" she continued, beginning to get worked up again.

"Al-" she interrupted calmly.

"-and I completely lost control which I don't normally do and won't do again because it's not your job to -"

"Shh," Stef silenced her before she could grow any more hysterical. She decided to chance it and soothingly tucked a piece of Alex's hair behind her ear. She couldn't stop herself from reaching out any longer.

"I'm sorry," Alex whispered, her eyes closing.

"It's okay," she assured her. "Are you okay?" she asked, gently taking her face in her hands, forcing eye contact.

Alex nodded; she didn't trust herself to speak, but knew Stef wanted an answer. "I'll be fine," she managed, her voice cracking as she maneuvered out of her gentle hold. This was all too much. The painful memories and the caring concern equally petrifying.

Stef sighed, dropping her hands to her lap as Alex stubbornly pulled away. "I know you will be, but that answer makes me think that currently you are not. I want to know how you're feeling at this moment. Are you okay right now?" she questioned, cocking her head to the side.

Alex closed her eyelids, trying to trap the tears that were scalding the back of her eyes before they could break free. But that one damn stray tear escaped the careful confounds, and it was too late.

"It's okay to say no," Stef murmured reassuringly, not being able to resist delicately thumbing the tear away as she patiently waited for a response.

No one had ever asked her that before. No one had ever cared enough to see how she was feeling. Make sure she was all right. And as humiliating and weak as she'd sound, she knew anyone asking that deserved the truth.

"No," she whispered honestly, almost inaudibly. Against her better judgment, against everything her experience and instincts told her, she dared to look up at Stef. "I'm not."

Touched by the vulnerability, but crushed by it just the same, Stef wordlessly wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close and fighting to keep her own tears at bay.

"But I will be," Alex stubbornly reiterated despite her hoarse voice, surprisingly returning the embrace.

"Yeah, you will be, love," Stef confirmed, smiling a little at her obstinacy even in the midst of all of this. Genetics were a powerful thing. She comfortingly ran a hand through her hair. "You will be."

**Some Alex and Stef bonding in this chapter, do you like how it all unfolded? Thank you for all of your great reviews last chapter; your feedback is always deeply appreciated. And thank you for all the birthday wishes as well! I had a fabulous birthday this year and your comments were so lovely to read. **

**As always, thanks to Liz and Grace for helping me out with this chapter. **


	17. Chapter 17

"Lena, do you want to come check this one for me?" Alex asked, looking over the problem for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Sure," Lena replied, going through her normal routine of sliding her chair from Jude's end of the table to hers. They had a system going, the three of them, and it had been running a lot more smoothly lately.

"Hm," Lena mused thoughtfully, eying the work on the page. "It looks good," she nodded, prompting Alex to breathe a sigh of relief. "You're getting pretty good at these. What is this, your fourth one right in a row?" she asked, impressed.

"Fifth one," Jude piped up. He always paid attention.

"Even more impressive," Lena smiled. "That GED test isn't going to know what hit it."

Alex laughed. "I don't know if I'd go that far. I mean, I still have a long ways to go, obviously."

"True," Lena agreed. "But at this rate, you're going to get there in no time at all."

Alex sighed, but couldn't help the small grin that appeared from Lena's proud, though obviously grossly overstated, comments. "Hopefully."

"We're home," Stef announced as she stepped into the kitchen, Callie in tow.

"Hey, Callie. How was group?" Lena inquired, standing up from her chair to greet Stef with a kiss as she spoke.

"Good," Callie replied simply as she casually drifted towards Jude.

"Good," Lena responded as she nodded, though crinkling an eyebrow as she did so. "Something wrong?" she asked, noting the look on her face. She looked distracted and a little nervous – something they hadn't seen in her in awhile, and it made Lena uneasy.

"No," Callie shook her head quickly, attempting to sound convincing as she cleared her throat. "No, I'm fine."

Picking up on the signs as well, Stef narrowed her eyes. "You sure?" she endeavored. She couldn't have her retreating back into old habits of not talking to them. That only led to disaster. And it made her ill at ease to think of the infinite amount of possible things that could've occurred to make her act this way all of the sudden.

"Yeah," Callie nodded her head once more. "I just – I was wondering actually if maybe I could go for a walk. We're supposed to take some pictures for photography class and I kind of had my eye on some spots in the park just up the road. Thought I could stop by there and shoot some before dinner."

Stef and Lena made eye contact, both reading each other's thoughts. Not only were they wary of leaving Callie alone ever since the running away incident, but something was definitely going on, making them even more resistant to the idea of allowing her out by herself.

"Well, uh, honey, we still don't feel totally comfortable with letting you go out alone. It's nothing against you," Lena raised her hands defensively, "it's just-"

"It's just that we would feel a lot better if you didn't go by yourself, you know if something were to happen," Stef finished with a nod of finality. "Now, I would be more than happy to go with you and I'm sure mama wouldn't mind either," she suggested.

Callie looked down at her hands, contemplative. She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't make any sound come out. It wasn't that she didn't love them, and any other day she would've been fine with either one of them coming, but today was different. Today she needed some time without them to process and be alone with her thoughts.

"I'll go with you," Alex offered, seeing the emotions flashing across Callie's face. She didn't know exactly what she was feeling, but she could interpret the gist.

Stef opened her mouth to protest, "I'm not sure that-"

"Great idea," Lena cut her off. Stef shot her a look. "If that's okay with Callie."

Callie nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure," she said with slight relief. If she couldn't be alone, she figured dragging Alex along was her next best option.

"I can come too," Jude spoke up from his place at the table.

"You know, that's okay, buddy. Why don't you just stay here and finish your homework," Callie said, ruffling his hair. As much as she wanted Jude with her, she knew that would be selfish of her to ask of him. She didn't want to cause him any unnecessary pain.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Sometimes Callie had to be asked twice. She didn't like to admit when she needed someone.

"Yeah," she nodded reassuringly. "I'll only be gone for a couple minutes anyway."

"If you guys are going, you better leave soon. Dinner will be ready in about a half an hour and I don't want you out when it gets dark," Lena said.

"You ready? I just have to grab my camera from my room first," Callie informed Alex, who nodded and stood.

"Ready."

"Both of you take coats, please, it's getting a little chilly," Stef requested.

Alex snickered. "You think this is cold? Please. You've clearly never seen an East Coast winter," she baited her playfully. She was hoping they could get back to normal soon, or as normal as possible after everything that had happened recently. She'd let down her guard, and it scared her. She needed to regain the strength and nonchalant attitude back, especially around Stef. The light jabs needed to act as a wall, a deterrent from the weakness she'd shown she was capable of.

Stef narrowed her eyes, "I resent that. California gets plenty cold. Just the other day I lowered by sunscreen to a meager 65 SPF," she joked. "So jackets, please," she requested.

Callie laughed lightly, "you're such a mom," she said, though there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

"That's my job, love," Stef replied with equal tenderness, sending her out the door with a gentle pat on the back.

She smiled softly at the door the two girls had exited out of before turning to her wife. "You really think this is a good idea?" she whispered skeptically, mindful of Jude still scribbling away in his notebook. She couldn't shake her uneasiness of allowing the two out alone together. They weren't bad kids, but they worried her the most – their riskier nature. Together spelled disaster in her mind, no matter how irrational the thought.

Lena nodded. She understood the hesitance, but could look past the fears to see the underlying benefits. "I do."

"How?" Stef asked, wondering how she could be so sure what with everything that had happened.

"I think it'll be good," Lena replied, trying to calm her wife. "I think they'll be good for each other."

Stef nodded, wanting to believe her. "I hope you're right."

"So," Callie started, crunching a leaf with her sneaker as she and Alex walked the short distance to the park, "how are you liking it here?"

"Here as in California here or here as in your house here?" Alex questioned, moseying along next to her.

Callie gave a small laugh. "Either I guess."

Alex shrugged. "California is okay. Hot. But besides the weather I can't say it's too different from Jersey. As far as your house goes, your family is really nice."

"They're your family too," Callie pointed out.

"I guess, technically. I don't know, I mean don't get me wrong, you all have been great. Just…still feels weird sometimes, you know? I'm not used to…all of this. The adjusting is just hard," she rambled, not even sure she was making sense. She pursed her lips. "But I guess you'd know all about that."

Callie breathed out a laugh. "Yeah, no. I totally get it. Adjusting is always hard, no matter what kind of situation. It's even harder when you're thrown into a place like this and you're definitely not used to it," she said vaguely, although Alex knew exactly what she meant. She didn't know too much about Callie or her past, but she knew it couldn't have been an easy one.

The two walked the rest of the way to the park in silence; the only sounds were their feet hitting the cement pavement below them.

When they got to the park, Callie gravitated toward one of the benches, gingerly sitting down and staring at the small garden next to it.

"You don't have to sit with me if you don't want to. You can walk around or something. I won't tell Stef and Lena, I promise," she said with a small smile.

"No, that's okay," Alex rejected the offer, instead taking the seat next to her.

Callie nodded, but didn't say another word about it, her eyes still fixated on the flowers beside her. They were enveloped in quiet once again. The park was relatively empty because of the timing and the colder than usual temperature. The only other people in the park were the occasional joggers or couple taking a sunset stroll. It was peaceful.

"So," Alex spoke up, "photography project?" she inquired after about ten minutes had passed and Callie hadn't even touched her camera.

Callie jumped slightly at the voice as she was pulled out of her trance, but gave a forced, guilty laugh. "Yeah, I might not actually have a photography project…" she said.

Alex feigned shock, faking a gasp. "What? I never would've guessed."

The two chuckled, though it was out of not knowing what to say next more than anything.

"All right, so the photography thing is bogus. Why exactly did you want to come out here?" Alex continued. She didn't want to be pushy, but figured it was worth a shot. If Callie didn't want to talk, she seemed like the girl that would come out and say it, and Alex would back off. But she knew how it could be. Sometimes you did want to talk, but you'd never admit it. Sometimes it took someone else to start it.

"The lilies," Callie said simply, closing her eyes, her voice soft.

"The lilies?" Alex questioned, confused.

"They were my mom's favorite," she said quietly, letting out a small sigh.

Alex nodded, though she knew Callie couldn't see her on account of her eyes still being shut. Though she figured she'd done enough. She'd opened the door and set the stage and if Callie wanted to say more, she would.

"It's her birthday," Callie added, surprising them both.

"Oh," the other girl said simply. She was quickly becoming out of her element, and she'd suddenly wished Stef or Lena were in her place. They were much better equipped for this.

"I mean, it would be her birthday if she were still alive."

Alex nodded. "What happened to her?" she prompted softly. "I mean, obviously you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I just-"

"Car wreck," Callie continued. She wasn't quite sure why she was revealing this now to this person. Maybe it was because she was already feeling in a vulnerable position. Maybe it was because she still couldn't shake the small feeling of guilt. She knew that Stef and Lena would always listen and be there for her, but somehow it felt a little like betrayal. Like she would seem ungrateful for them. She knew that Lena and Stef would never view it that way, and probably chastise her for thinking that irrational thought as well, but she couldn't help it.

"That sucks," Alex said softly.

"Yeah," Callie laughed at the bluntness, wiping a tear. "It does."

"I'm really sorry," she apologized. She should probably try to comfort her. Take her hand, put an arm around her, something, but she'd never been good with comfort. Not that side of it, at least.

"It's okay. Happened a long time ago," she replied. She wasn't ready to tell her the rest yet. She wasn't ready to tell anyone the rest yet. Everyone knew the basics – that Donald had been driving, but the information had never come from her. She wasn't ready to discuss that part. It was all too complicated.

"Still, it has to be hard."

"Sometimes."

Alex took a deep breath. "I'm not going to pretend to know how you feel or anything, because I think that's the worst thing people can say. But if it helps any, I kind of know what it's like to grow up alone. And too fast."

"Yeah?" Callie asked, intrigued.

Alex shrugged. "I think so. Obviously I didn't know my dad, and my mom was around but she wasn't really _there_, you know?"

"How so?"

"She uh, drank. A lot. And sometimes when she drank she got pretty violent," Alex looked down at her hands, trying to blink back the memories.

"I know how that can be. More than a few foster parents showed me that," Callie nodded, looking down at her hands as well.

They each looked downcast, lost in memories, but the closeness and support of the other was making it easier than usual. Making enduring the memories more bearable.

"I think-" Callie started after a few minutes, but stopped herself, second guessing. However, when she looked at Alex's questioning eyes, she swallowed back her doubt and hesitation and continued. "I think that's probably why it's so hard."

"Why what's so hard?"

"Adjusting. Like I said, adjusting anywhere is hard, but when you're used to something that sucks and then you get to a place like this-"

"It's hard to believe it's real."

"Yeah," Callie agreed. "And you almost feel like you...like you don't deserve it?"

"Like you don't fit in because it's so normal but it feels so…"

"Not normal."

"Exactly," Alex nodded, relieved, but suddenly filled with the same discomfort. "Look, I'm sorry for laying all of this on you and totally distracting from why you were here," she shook her head.

Callie shook her head. "Trust me; the distraction was a good thing. I welcome the distraction."

"Still. Sorry for the pity party."

"Don't apologize," Callie said. "Seriously, you're good. And definitely don't ever let Stef or Lena hear you apologize for that either or you'll get like a fifteen minute lecture on why it's never a bad thing to express what you're feeling."

Alex smirked.

"I'm not kidding," Callie smirked as well. "You think I'm joking, but I've probably heard the same speech like eighty times by now. And if you don't stop laughing at my misfortune, I'll give you the talk. I have it memorized."

"All right, all right, I'll stop," Alex snorted. "We should probably get home anyway."

Callie checked her cell phone, seeing almost half an hour had passed. "Yeah, you're right. Wouldn't want Stef to send out a search party."

"She'd do it too."

"Oh I know she would."

"Wait!" Alex exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. "You'd better snap some pictures first in case one of them asks to see them for class or whatever."

Callie nodded, "good thinking," she replied, crouching down to take a couple shots of the flowers, heavily focusing on the lilies.

"You're really good, you know," Alex said, watching her over her shoulder.

"Thanks," Callie replied nonchalantly.

"I mean it. You should take pictures for the school newspaper or something. If you guys even have one of those…" she trailed.

"We do," Callie smirked, still looking through the lenses.

"Well there you go. You should do it."

Callie looked back at her, her eyes slightly narrowed, though a grin was evident on her face. "Maybe I'll consider it."

"You should." Alex smiled slightly as she watched her return to her picture taking, thinking that if she had a camera, she'd want to snap a picture of this moment as well – the moment she actually felt connected to someone in this world.

Like maybe someone actually understood her a little.

Like maybe she wasn't so alone after all.

**Some Callie/Alex bonding in this chapter. Did you enjoy it? Thanks for your reviews last chapter, and please keep the feedback coming! I love to know what you thought!**

**Thanks Grace and Liz for your help. **


	18. Chapter 18

"What a day. I'm exhausted," Stef sighed as she slumped into bed, immediately cocooning herself within her blankets.

Lena snickered from her reclining position, reading a book as per usual.

"What's so funny?" Stef inquired, propping herself onto her elbow to face her wife.

"You literally say that every night, Stef," Lena gave her a look over her book, a playful smile on her face.

"Well, every day exhausts me," Stef defended. "It's not easy being a cop, you know. Chasing down criminals, interrogating suspects, interviewing witnesses-"

"Or maybe you're just getting old, honey," Lena said, patting her knee. "It's okay to admit, aging is nothing to be ashamed of," she comforted.

Stef sat up and slapped her hand away, but couldn't help but give into the grin threatening to emerge. "What has got you in such a good mood? And by good I mean terribly rude and insulting, of course."

Lena shrugged, folding the corner of her page and placing the book on her lap. "I don't know," she admitted, looking at Stef, seriously but still happily. "I just feel like everything is finally starting to come together and settle down. It's just nice."

"Well don't jinx it," Stef warned. "But I know what you mean," she agreed softly after a beat. "And I'd have to agree."

"Did you hear Jude at dinner tonight?" Lena asked, propping up on her shoulder as well, completely abandoning the book and absorbed in the conversation.

"He wants to join the science club," Stef practically squealed. When Jude first came to live with them, she was doubtful she'd ever live to see the day where Jude would be confident enough to join anything, let alone something academic.

"Mariana made a new friend," Lena continued, grinning. "And I've met this kid. Straight-A student, comes from a nice family. I'd be very surprised if this one ever tried to buy prescription drugs off of her or convince her to put her intimates in a classmate's jacket," she added.

Stef snorted a laugh, but nodded sincerely. "I'm glad. She's been dealt such a rough hand lately, first Lexi and then Zac. High school certainly hasn't been easy on her, but she's a tough one."

"Speaking of tough ones," Lena segued. "Callie when she got back from the park?" she asked softly, posing it like a question.

Stef took a deep breath. "That kid's getting more generous with her spontaneous hugs."

"That a bad thing?"

"No," Stef shook her head fervently. "God no, of course not. I mean, they still catch me off-guard but it's one of the best things in the world. But I'm not going to lie to you, I'm still a little worried about her," she admitted.

Lena nodded in agreement. "She'd obviously been crying. You could tell she was trying her best to hide it, but I could see it."

"You think it's something serious? I mean, sure she's reaching out to us more with little things, but I'm still not totally convinced she's at the point where she'd feel fully comfortable coming to us if it was something big," Stef reasoned, pursing her lips. "You think we need to sit down and talk to her?" she asked after a few moments of thinking.

Lena sighed, mulling it over. "No," she said decisively. "Not yet at least. Give her a little time. Either it was just a fluke and she had a bad day or she'll come to us. We'll just keep an eye on her and if it gets worse, then we can think about having a talk."

Stef nodded. "We can ask Alex, too, if it carries on. She was at the park with her today. If it gets serious we can see if she knows something we don't, but for now let's just leave it alone and see how it plays out."

"How do you think she's doing?" Lena asked at the mention of her name. "Alex, I mean."

Stef licked her lip. "Good from what I can tell. She seems to be adjusting well, don't you think? She's acting responsibly, getting a job, bonding well with the kids. How's the schooling going?"

"Great," Lena said honestly. "She's a smart kid, Stef. She works hard." She paused, contemplating her next words. "Do you think we should make a more permanent arrangement of it?"

"I thought we kind of already did…"

"I mean at the house. Do you think it's time we try to get her out of the living room? Give her a little more space and privacy?"

Stef sighed. "It would be nice, but where are we going to put her? We don't have any extra rooms and I'm not about to make Callie and Mariana triple up, that's too much."

"No, I agree," Lena said. "But there's got to be some place. I know it's small, but we could clear out the laundry room. Move the machines up into the spare closet up here. It'll be tight, but I think they'd fit. I know it's not ideal but at least it'd be somewhere slightly more homey and welcoming while she's here, don't you think?" She suggested.

"It'd take some renovation, but it could work," Stef nodded, although Lena could tell she was distracted at the comment.

"What?" Lena prompted. "Is something wrong? Is everything okay with her?" she asked, growing worried.

"Everything's fine," Stef reassured her, snapping out of her haze. "Although I'm not about to lie to you and say she still doesn't scare the hell out of me though."

"Why? You still think she's dangerous? Stef, aside from a couple of little lies there's no reason to believe that she's-" Lena started in a tirade.

"No, no, no," Stef cut her off, holding out a hand. "I mean scared for her sake."

"What do you mean? Did something happen?"

Stef sighed. "I meant to tell you this earlier, but last night I woke up and found her outside," she raked a hand through her hair.

"What?" Lena asked, alarmed, sitting up straighter. "Why didn't you wake me up? What was she doing out there? Is she all right?" she questioning in quick, panicky succession.

"I thought I heard something and got up to see what it was. I was just curious; I wasn't going to wake you up if it was nothing. She had a nightmare, Lena," she said, her voice turning concerned. "She seemed pretty rattled by it. She went outside to get some fresh air and I led her back inside."

"Did you talk to her?"

"I tried. She wouldn't tell me what it was about, but she let me sit with her awhile and make small talk. I think she just wanted to forget about it."

"Well that's better than nothing, I suppose," Lena said, although still clearly bothered. She sighed. "I just wish these kids would come to us and tell us when they need help. They're always so stubborn."

"Tell me about it," Stef agreed, prompting a damning look from Lena. "What?" she asked in defensive innocence.

"You are just as stubborn as them, Stef."

"I am not!" she argued, though she knew Lena was correct in her statement. "All right," she relented, giving a small laugh, "I can be. _Sometimes_. But I'm working on it. We're all working on it. We'll get there, love," she said, affectionately running a hand through her hair.

"I hope so," Lena replied, trying to keep up her nonchalant façade. "Or you're all going to make me crazy."

"You make me crazy," Stef retorted, climbing closer to her.

"Yeah?" Lena asked, squinting at her, but breaking down and grinning.

"Oh yeah," Stef whispered, reaching over her to grab the remote on her bedside table, taking the initiative to lower her side of the bed.

"Hey now," Lena protested, halfheartedly swatting her hand away. "My side of the bed, my remote, my rules. Maybe I'm not done reclining and reading my book," she said jokingly, allowing the bed to carry her down, slowly sinking to a flat position.

"I've got something better for you to read," Stef replied.

Lena sucked in a doubtful breath through her teeth. "I don't know, this book is pretty interesting. What do you have that you think can beat it?" she asked, wrinkling an eyebrow.

"I was thinking maybe," Stef started, going in for a kiss. "You could read my lips instead," she continued, emphasizing with another teasing peck.

"Hmm," Lena pretended to ponder. "That could work. And just what exactly are these lips of yours saying?"

"They're saying that I love you," Stef pulled her close. "And that you're the most beautiful woman in the world."

"Hmm," Lena repeated, initiating the kiss this time. "That's funny. My lips are saying the same thing."

Stef pulled back from her advancement, effectively killing the moment.

"What?" Lena asked with slight irritation.

"Nothing," Stef giggled. "But my God," she ran a hand over her face, "when did we get so damn cheesy?"

Lena sighed; unimpressed at Stef's reasons for successfully ruining one of the more romantic moments they'd had in weeks. She nabbed the book she'd tossed on her bedside table instead.

"No, no, no," Stef protested when she saw Lena make the move for the novel. "Don't open the-" she started. "Book," she completed sadly as Lena showily unfolded her reading material once again. "Lena, please," she pouted.

"You ruined the moment," she complained.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I bet I could un-ruin it if you gave me a chance," she flashed a winning smile tracing a finger along her arm.

Lena threw her an unimpressed glance, but couldn't help but be taken by the honest love in her eyes. No matter how frustrating Stef could be what with her ill-timed laughter and easily distracted tenancies, she could never resist her playful nature, and ultimately that always won out.

She pretended to think it over, but soon gave in with the roll of her eyes. "Fine," she replied, throwing her book back on the table. "But this better be good."

"It will be," Stef promised.

The book wasn't touched again the rest of the night.

"Uhh," Alex started, confused at the scene in front of her as she walked through the front door, dropping her purse on an end table and making her way further back into the house. "What are you guys doing?" she questioned, walking into the small room.

"We're throwing a dinner party," Stef replied sarcastically, blowing a piece of hair from her face and wiping her forehead.

Lena lightly slapped her on the arm before beaming at Alex. "We're painting!" she exclaimed cheerfully, dipping a roller in a paint tray and swiping the wall with it.

"You're painting the laundry room?" she wrinkled an eyebrow. "The laundry room that no longer has things to do laundry with in it?" she added at the realization the room was completely empty.

"Nooo, we're not painting the laundry room," Lena said with a smile. "Tell her, Stef," she prompted.

Stef stood up, now grinning as well. "We're painting your room," she proclaimed.

"What?" Alex asked, breathing out a laugh.

"We wanted it to be a surprise," Lena said, deflating a little. "But we got a late start."

"Our plan was to move all of the furniture in here after the paint had dried a bit while you were at work, but we grossly underestimated the time it would take to get this thing painted. Seems small and simple enough until you actually start painting," Stef groaned, holding her back.

"We were going to ask you what color you'd like but we figured that'd ruin the surprise and take the fun out of it so we settled on a light blue. You like blue, right?" Lena rambled. "I mean, it's a pretty safe color and since your purse is blue we figured that-"

"Lena," Alex held up a hand, cutting her off.

"So…do you like it? The color?" Lena asked anxiously.

"I love it," Alex smiled. "It's…amazing, actually. But you guys really didn't have to do this," she shook her head, still in awe. She definitely wasn't expecting a room, no matter how small, let alone a renovation to personalize it. Not only the money issue of it but the time and effort of it as well. And they'd wanted to surprise her? Why would they want to do that?

"Oh yes we did," Stef argued. "I want my living room back," she said with a wink.

"I can help cover the cost of paint and furniture or whatever. It'll be a few weeks until I get my first paycheck, but-"

"Don't worry about it," Lena shooed away the offer.

"No, really. I don't want you to-"

"Alex, really, it's fine," Lena reassured her. "The paint wasn't too expensive and most of the furniture we either already had or got pretty cheap. It's really not a big deal," she smiled, nodding, silently begging her to just accept the gift.

"Well thank you," Alex relented softly. "I don't actually quite know what to say," she said, still taken aback by the grand gesture.

"Well I think you should say 'let me go change into some old clothes and help these aching women paint,'" Stef suggested.

Alex laughed. "That I can do," she agreed, grabbing a pair of old sweats and a t-shirt from her pile in the corner of the living room and making her way into the bathroom to change.

"I think we did good," Stef whispered, nudging Lena.

"I think we did too," she agreed. "It's nice seeing her happy. I think she's getting more comfortable here, don't you?"

Stef nodded as Alex reentered the room. "Looking hot," she commented as she spied Alex's raggedy getup and disheveled, thrown-up hair.

"Oh I know. Attracts all the boys," Alex replied, grabbing a roller.

"I think these paint fumes are starting to go to your guys' heads," Lena laughed.

"How was work?" Stef questioned.

"Not bad," Alex shrugged. "Long shift, but no overly-rude customers or overcomplicated orders. Decent tips too."

"Here's a tip, wipe that speck of dirt off your nose," Stef informed her.

"I have dirt on my nose?" she fretted, her hands reaching up to scrub it off. "Is it gone?" she asked self-consciously.

"No, still there. Let me get it," Stef offered, slyly scooping her finger into the paint holder before tapping the tip of her nose with it. "There," she laughed. "All better."

"Rude," Alex pouted, as Stef continued laughing.

"It was almost too easy."

"You're so childish," Lena condemned, rolling her eyes but smiling at the playful interaction as well, happy at the natural connection they seemed to be having.

"Childish antics shouldn't be preformed by the elderly," Alex said pompously, a cheeky smile on her face.

Stef's mouth dropped open, and she gently sat the paintbrush back in the tray and took a deep breath.

"Oh, you've done it now, Alex," Lena warned with a laugh.

"You. Did _not_. Just say that," Stef whispered threateningly.

Alex dared to shrug. "What are you going to do about it? I doubt your ancient legs could keep up with me," she pushed further, grinning mischievously.

"That a challenge?" Stef raised an eyebrow.

Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "It's whatever you want it to be," she faced her, both of them squaring off.

"Be careful you two," Lena warned, seeing the potential danger here.

"Well bring it, whippersnapper. You're so on," Stef replied evenly, bending down to reach for the paint container. Alex took this as her cue to run, taking off in a dead sprint into the kitchen, running as fast as she could to the back door.

"You're not as quick as you think you are!" Stef yelled, gaining speed and trailing close behind her. The two continued this game of cat and mouse around the backyard for a few minutes until Stef had strategically cornered her between where both sides of the fence met. "Got you now," she said, reaching towards a squealing Alex, overdramatically pleading for mercy from the older woman's paint-saturated clutches.

"Please, no," she begged between her panting and laughter. "I'll do anything," she promised as Stef slowly advanced.

"Oh it's much too late for bargaining," Stef replied, smearing the paint on her arms and cheeks and locking her in a hold. "Now are you _ever_ going to make another completely untrue old joke?" she asked.

"No," Alex complied, trying to struggle out of the death-grip.

"You swear to it?"

"I swear to it."

"On your life?" Stef asked, purposely prolonging the process.

"On my life," Alex agreed.

Stef sighed. "All right. I suppose you're free to go," she said, releasing her. "_But,_" she continued, "just remember if you don't comply with these orders, I know where the paint is," she threatened, her eyes widening seriously.

"I understand," Alex nodded, pursing her lips and smiling.

"Good," Stef said. "Now let's go inside and get cleaned up, yeah?" she asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and smearing the last little bit of paint down her arm.

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "That sounds good."

And even though she was a mess and covered in paint, she'd never felt better.

**How'd you like this chapter? A bit of a lighter one for a change. Did you enjoy the Stef and Lena conversation and the paint chase? This story has over 200 reviews now which is so epic and makes me so emotional and wow you guys are the best. Thank you all so much for your feedback and continued support!**

**Thank you Liz and Grace for your help!**


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